
Book t 



Copyright^ 



7 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE QUESTION 

AS A MEASURE OF EFFICIENCY 

IN INSTRUCTION 

A CRITICAL STUDY OF CLASS-ROOM PRACTICE 



BY 

ROMIETT STEVENS, Ph.D. 



TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION, NO. 48 



PUBLISHED BY 

2fearlj*rB (EnlUgr, (Mmnhta Unittfrattg 

NEW YORK CITY 
1912 



fcanotfKpo. 



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Copyright, 1912, by Romiett Stevens 



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PREFACE 

The author desires to express grateful appreciation for the 
professional co-operation of individuals and groups of individuals 
who have made possible this study in class-room efficiency. First 
of all my acknowledgments are due to Dr. James E. Russell, 
Dean of Teachers College, through whose encouragement and 
aid the Department of Secondary Education was enabled to 
make the stenographic reports that serve as a basis for the in- 
vestigations ; also to Dr. Julius Sachs, Professor of Secondary 
Education, and to Dr. Frank McMurry, Professor of Elementary 
Education, whose guidance and advice have been invaluable 
throughout the progress of the work. I also acknowledge most 
gratefully the courtesy and true professional spirit manifested 
by the principals and teachers in the various schools selected for 
detailed observation of class-room practice. 

R. S. 
Teachers College 

Columbia University 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Part I. The Significance of a Study of Questioning i 

Part II. The Efficiency of Instruction as Measured 

by the Number of Questions ... 8 
Chapter I. Nature of the investigations in class-room 

practice ...... 8 

Chapter II. Efficiency of instruction as measured by a 

large number of questions . . 16 

Chapter III. Efficiency of instruction as measured by a 

smaller number of questions . . 45 

Part III. The Efficiency of Instruction as Measured 

by the Quality of the Questions . . 72 

Appendix. Stenographic Report of an English Lesson 87 



PARTI 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A STUDY OF 
QUESTIONING 

This report is a study of one small phase of class-room pro- 
cedure — the use of the question. It is a critical study of class- 
room practice rather than the promulgation of a theory. The 
motive in its presentation is twofold: to turn the searchlight of 
inquiry upon some significant tendencies in our teaching, and to 
suggest opportunities for constructive work in a neglected field 
in the training and supervision of teachers. 

That it is a neglected aspect of training is proved by the fact 
that so little has been written about questioning. There is not 
in educational literature sufficient bibliography on the subject to 
be formally recorded. Fitch's little pamphlet on the "Art of 
Questioning " deals with the technique of the craft of teaching, 
and Reinstein's " Die Frage im Unterricht "* is a brief treatise 
in the same vein with excellent suggestions regarding the use 
of analytic and developmental questions in foreign language work 
and mathematics. In our own country there have been only 
occasional chapters on the art of questioning in books of 
method. 2 The importance of the art and its constant application 
in teaching make this omission the more surprising. In view 
of these facts I trust that the investigations recorded in this 
study, and the deductions drawn therefrom may be considered in 
the light of pioneer work in this particular field of practice. 

It seems to be very generally assumed that teachers know by 
a sort of intuition when to ask questions and how to ask them — 
that if the content of the lesson and the general plan of presen- 
tation have been adequately plotted, the questions will in some 
way adjust themselves to the needs of the moment. Teachers 

1 Reinstein, Die Frage im Unterricht, Leipzig, 1903. 
* De Garmo, Interest and Education, Chapter XIV. 

Betts, The Recitation, Chapter III. 

Strayer, The Teaching Process, Chapter XL 



2 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

are rarely at a loss for questions — in fact it seems that the first 
consideration with many is ability to ask them rapidly. The 
situation as I have found it since I have been making a study 
of the subject, makes me appreciate the attitude of the youthful 
teacher of history who said with assurance upon accepting her 
first position, " Oh, I'm going to ask questions so fast that the 
pupils will have no chance to think of anything." It is a fact 
that teachers do use the question as a means to bridge gaps and 
kill time during a class hour, thus perverting its legitimate and 
valuable function as an educational agent. 

The question and answer type of recitation, when rightly used, 
is more fruitful for the teaching process than any of these three 
recognized media of instruction, the topical recitation, the written 
lesson, or the lecture. The topical recitation is a method em- 
ployed for repeating facts that are presented and systematized 
by someone else; the written lesson is a test of the facts a stu- 
dent possesses and, at best, his method of classifying them; 
the lecture is a " pouring in " process. 

The question and answer recitation may become a conversation 
hour between teacher and pupils, a period of richest opportunity 
for true education, i.e., the " leading out " of what is in the mind 
of the pupil. It can be a time when the mind of the teacher 
comes into closest touch with the will and the emotions of his 
pupil, guiding and directing him towards standards of thought 
and action far beyond the ken of youth. It can be a time of 
richest opportunity for the teacher to ascertain just where to set 
his pupils adrift in thought life to do independent intellectual 
work in accordance with their ability, and so to grow in the 
power to think and to act for themselves. It can be the time 
for the teacher to discover the possible avenues of a pupil's own 
initiative and to give him the right impetus. 

The use that a teacher makes of a recitation period reveals 
very clearly his aims and purposes in teaching. After all, it is 
what he actually does in the class room, rather than what he 
aims to do, that counts in the education of youth. If a teacher's 
ultimate aim is the " acquisition of knowledge," then it is rea- 
sonable to expect that his class work will reflect that aim and 
the tendency towards it will be manifest in the framing of his 
questions. I hardly need to add that not every question need 
bristle with " ultimate aim," but it is certainly true that if he 



The Significance of a Study of Questioning 3 

possesses an honest purpose in his teaching, that purpose will 
be manifest in his intercourse with his pupils ; it will give color, 
however faint it may be, to his questions. If his ultimate aim 
is " harmonious development of all the powers," then again it 
is reasonable to expect that his class work will reflect that aim, 
and it is right for us to seek traces of it in his questions. If 
his ultimate aim is " social efficiency," it is likewise true that 
his class work will reflect that aim. It is impossible to realize 
the ultimate aim unless the successive steps, or the immediate 
aims, point in the direction of the ultimate aim. 

When a high school principal says that the aim of instruc- 
tion in his school is to make his boys and girls good citizens, 
and in the same school the physics instructor says his aim in 
teaching physics is to get his pupils into college, and the history 
instructor says his aim is to teach history, it becomes a very 
interesting study to get down to the actual reactions of pupils 
and teachers in that school ; to see just how the history teacher's 
practice fits his aim, and how the physics teacher fulfils his 
object, and how both of them, working for the unity of the 
school, approximate the standards set by the principal. Then 
when it chances that we find both physics and history teachers 
spending all their energies in quizzing, day after day, upon facts 
set forth in text-book lessons — in the " hearing " of predigested 
or partly digested facts — it is obvious that the man who says 
his aim in teaching is to get his pupils into college is probably 
the only one whose practice approximates his theory. 

It seems a travesty upon the science of education to claim 
to make " good citizens " by the current class-room practice of 
hearing text-book lessons. When all is said and done the class 
rooms are the units of the school, and the practices of the class 
room are the factors that count in educational realization. The 
efficiency of a school or of a system of schools must be measured 
by the efficiency of its class-room practice; the thing that the 
pupil is doing is the thing that counts. 

When we find a true teacher at work in a class room we gen- 
erally find that he is using the question and answer recitation 
for a distinct educational purpose : he seeks through a series of 
skillful questions to draw forth from his pupils certain groups 
of facts related or unrelated ; he then gives the pupil the incen- 
tive to assort his facts and put them together in new relations, 



4 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

converting them into potential factors in his experience ; he helps 
him to make over a mass of dry facts into living knowledge. 
The mechanical teacher seeks in his questioning merely to drive 
home a certain daily assortment of facts gleaned from the perusal 
of the text-book lesson. The teacher who is a master of the 
art of questioning knows how, by the use of the right question 
in the right place, to teach his pupils to acquire and classify 
knowledge. If he is not a master of the art, if he cannot him- 
self be clear and logical in his questioning, he fosters in his 
pupils negative habits of work, poor associations, and careless 
impressions. 

With the scientific teacher, the conversation hour is the time 
for versatility in effort to establish ideals, to form habits of 
thought and action, to do any of the many things pertinent to 
the development of the unformed or crudely formed habits of 
the youthful mind. With the mechanical teacher it is continu- 
ously a period for pumping facts into or out of the storage 
reservoir of the mind. There is a story of an Ohio school teacher 
who asked of her class one day a question that did not draw 
the prompt response she expected. With some surprise she 
turned to one of the boys, saying, " You know what I want you 
to say, Johnnie; why don't you say it?" Johnnie replied, "I 
know what you want all right, but you ain't asked the question 
what fetches it." This teacher was pumping for facts, and the 
youth, wiser than she, refused to yield up his store until the 
teacher had performed her task properly. 

Possibly one reason for the general defects in our method of 
using the question and answer is due to the very casual attention 
paid to the subject in our training of teachers. In most training 
classes, two lines of instruction are strongly stressed, namely, the 
fund of knowledge and the psychology of teaching. A school 
emphasizes the necessity for a fund of knowledge, requiring that 
a certain proportion of time in the stage of preparation be given 
to the content studies in order that the teacher's experience may 
always be broader and richer than any possible needs of his 
class. The school also emphasizes the importance of the psychol- 
ogy and theory of teaching, requiring students to make applica- 
tion of their psychology or theory in selecting and adapting from 
their fund of knowledge certain portions for the immediate needs 
of the class room. In concrete form this last phase of work is 



The Significance of a Study of Questioning 5 

embodied in a lesson plan, which gives variously the psychological 
aims of the lesson, the content, and a brief outline of the manner 
of presentation. This accomplished, the student-teacher is fre- 
quently sent to meet his class, leaving the immediate connection 
between the plan in his mind and the experience in the mind 
of the child to be met through a series of questions. These ques- 
tions may be so inspiring in their origin that they stimulate the 
mental life of the children to just the right degree of vigorous 
activity, or they may, in themselves, wholly defeat a nobly con- 
ceived psychological aim of the lesson. 

For these reasons I believe the subject of questioning should 
have a place in the training of every teacher — a place that is 
comparable in importance with " fund of knowledge " and psy- 
chology. Since it is so largely the medium by means of which 
the principles of psychology and the fund of knowledge are tied 
together to further the educative process, it stands to reason that 
it is a point in the training of teachers where thoughtful atten- 
tion should be centered. Young teachers should not be left to 
do haphazard work in questioning, but they should be made 
familiar with the functioning power of different types of ques- 
tions, and should know how to incorporate in the plan of a 
lesson a framework of questions, possibly not more than eight 
or ten in number, that will indicate conclusively the intended 
values of the lesson. (If the lesson is to have any aims and 
values, these must be apparent in the questioning, — otherwise 
they remain things of theory in the note book of the teacher. 

The entire range of questions can, for obvious reasons, never 
be prepared before entering the class. It is impossible to antici- 
pate the crossroads and the byways through which the teacher 
may be obliged to journey in order to guide his pupils to a 
camp ground for the day. jAny teacher who attempts to follow 
a rigid sequence of questions is hopelessly lost, and all spon- 
taneity is swallowed up in " method."/ However, there is a rea- 
sonable course between total absence of preconceived method and 
total absorption in such method. There is an art in questioning 
that can be acquired by study and practice. The art of question- 
ing well is a high attainment in a teacher's method. Proficiency 
is not to be expected of novices in the profession, yet it should 
be a possible attainment with practice of the most conscious and 
intelligent sort. Practice, however, — mere practice — will not 



6 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

accomplish the desired end; many a teacher questions hourly 
during every day of a school year and is no more skillful than 
when he began. When a teacher conscientiously makes study of 
the subject, analyzing and criticizing his own attempts, trying 
and failing, and trying again, it is possible to develop technique 
in questioning, just as it is possible to develop technique in 
any other art. I It is absolutely essential to bring conscious atten- 
tion to bear upon the subject before one can command the habit 
of questioning well./ 

Although we recognize the existence and the importance of 
several different types of recitation, I believe it is safe to say 
that eight-tenths of the school time is occupied with questions 
and answers. The first question the teacher asks after a class 
enters the room serves to give a vigorous prick to the attention 
of the group, and to bring forward into consciousness the masses 
of experience that are likely to be needed for the work of the 
hour. For example, a class may have just come from a period 
of German, where every faculty was strained to understand, 
to give expression, to incorporate for the first time certain new 
constructions and idioms of the foreign language. And now, 
after an interval of five minutes, another teacher aims, by one 
direct question, to throw into the background all thought of the 
German, and to bring forward another mass known as geometry, 
as by the pressing of a button. Plato named the question well 
when he called it the " torpedo's touch." Sometimes, at the close 
of several hours of class work, and after a prolonged series of 
questions, the mind fails to respond to this kind of stimulus. 
We find that the attention of the pupils lags; then the teacher 
is forced to wield his weapon with even greater vigor, so that 
the intellectual powers of the poor pupils are fairly prodded to 
action, just as the vitality of a jaded horse is stimulated by the 
spurs of an ambitious rider. 

We know something of the effect of a question upon ourselves 
when we are listening to a lecture. Our interest and attention 
are naturally with the speaker; we make ourselves most recep- 
tive; we sit back for a comfortable and enjoyable hour. Then 
if the lecturer suddenly pauses and frames a good question, the 
effect is instantaneous whether the question is directed at us 
individually or at the world in general. What happens in the 
gray matter of the brain may be left to the psychologist to explain, 



The Significance of a Study of Questioning 7 

but we know perfectly well what our experience is. Whereas 
interest and attention were present before the question came, 
their nature now is somewhat different. We have suddenly been 
called upon to make quick associations of ideas, and possibly to 
give expression to thought, both sets of activities requiring a 
degree of mental vigor not exercised when we were mere listen- 
ers. The " torpedo's touch " has been applied. 

In our class rooms children are being brought up on this kind 
of mental stimulus, exercised with so little discretion that there 
is a continuous tendency to over stimulus of certain qualities, 
generally of the more superficial sort, to the utter neglect of the 
more valuable qualities. While fully cognizant of the importance 
of the question as the legitimate implement of the teacher, designed 
by its very nature to be perhaps the greatest medium of instruc- 
tion, I believe it is generally used too vigorously and too thought- 
lessly, thus defeating the very purposes for which it was designed. 

If the purpose of the question is to provoke thought and evoke 
expression, can the result be other than negative when a teacher 
of history in one class period of forty minutes asks one hundred 
and fifty questions, and gets one hundred and fifty answers, with 
an average of more than three questions and three answers per 
minute? With such breakneck speed what chance can there 
be for assimilation or association of ideas, and for orderly ex- 
pression? The nervous pace of the American people is set in 
just this way by thousands of our teachers during every day of 
the year. 

That my assertions regarding present-day practice in the use 
of the question and answer recitation may not be purely theoretical 
or derived merely from impressions received during cursory obser- 
vations, I have made personally a set of investigations of prevalent 
practices in the use of the question and answer in typical schools 
in and around New York City. The results of these investiga- 
tions are set forth in the following chapters. 



PART II 

EFFICIENCY OF INSTRUCTION AS MEASURED 
BY THE NUMBER OF QUESTIONS 

CHAPTER I 

NATURE OF THE INVESTIGATIONS IN CLASS- 
ROOM PRACTICE 

My investigations touching the teacher's use of the question 
as a medium of instruction have covered a period of four years. 
I have observed classes in different types of schools, public and 
private, and grades from the seventh grammar through the last 
year of high school. In selecting teachers for observation, I 
have always asked for the best teachers in the school, so that 
the results of my observations reflect the work that is acknowl- 
edged to be above the average. Twenty lessons have been steno- 
graphically reported in order that I might have some accurate 
black-and-white records of class work for detailed study. 

There has been heretofore a lack of studies of actual class- 
room practice except by way of casual impressions received and 
notes taken during personal observation of a lesson. There has 
been a want, too, of accurate and permanent records of every 
word uttered during a class period so that lessons could be ana- 
lyzed and studied for their intellectual and psychological values, 
as definite pieces of literature. It was for the purpose of furnish- 
ing black-and-white records of facts as a basis for study that 
these stenographic lesson reports were made. It was necessary to 
get absolutely away from the radiance of a good teacher's pres- 
ence and the sympathetic interaction of the personalities of pupils 
and teacher, and to sit down in the privacy of one's study with 
the cold hard facts of the intellectual " stuff " of the lesson, in 
order to get anything like a systematic approach for the estimate 
of values in questioning. It is far from my intention to depre- 
ciate the qualities of sympathy, personality, inspiration, and " in- 



The Investigations 9 

teraction," but these estimable characteristics alone do not con- 
stitute the framework of the educative process. There must be 
first of all a firm foundation of the content of instruction — some- 
thing worth while to teach and consistent methods of teaching 
it — and then sympathy gives life to work, and inspiration gives 
it direction. 

By means of the stenographic reports, then, we may be able 
to analyze a lesson for any of its functions or values that can 
be measured by spoken words. It is the purpose of this study 
to analyze for questioning alone. Content, plan of lesson, methods 
of assigning work, aims ("utilitarian," "cultural," "social," or 
" efficiency "), are not considered except as they may be reflected 
in the questioning. 

The first reading of a stenographic lesson is generally dis- 
appointing. This is due, I think, to the fact that it is so different 
from a " model " lesson with which we unconsciously compare 
it. The stenographic lesson seems void and flippant by contrast. 
A model lesson is a creation of the mature, well-drilled mind 
of its teacher-author, who, knowing his goal, his time-limit, his 
material and his tools, shapes his lesson as a unit, — as complete 
and perfect a unit as he can conceive. It is not so with real 
lessons. The teacher in the class room must always reckon with 
the element of the unexpected ; the lesson report reflects it. There 
are all manner of exigencies to be met in the conduct of a real 
lesson, and these " asides," interruptions, and repetitions make 
the actual report seem less complete, less serious, but much more 
natural than the model lesson. 

The stenographic reports are to all intents and purposes accur- 
ate. There are certain limitations in the best congressional re- 
porters when they are called upon to use the technical vocabularies 
of our class rooms with the speed required to keep pace with 
nervous teachers and high-strung pupils. There is additional 
difficulty encountered through the habitual carelessness of children 
in the use of spoken English. " Mouthing " of words, trailing 
sentences off into nothingness, leaving sentences unfinished, these 
are some of the difficulties the reporters must meet. The reports 
have in every case been returned to the teacher for correction 
of words, and for insertions where the stenographer lost words. 
If the report seemed to the teacher to be wholly unfair because 
of the stenographer's incapacity, it was destroyed. 



io The Question as a Measure of 'Efficiency in Instruction 

The stenographic reports are quoted freely in the following 
pages. The criticisms are in no way personal to the individual 
teachers, for each of whom I have the most sincere respect. In 
selecting them for these studies, I have consciously chosen repre- 
sentative teachers in the different schools and in different subjects. 
In every case the presence of the stenographers was an ordeal 
that was met with courage and unselfishness. Under the cir- 
cumstances, conditions could never be wholly normal. Loyalty 
to the profession and intelligent appreciation of the needs of the 
profession prompted the acquiescence of the teachers in the con- 
fessedly trying experiments. I trust that the discussions will be 
accepted in the same professional spirit, since they are in no 
way criticisms of individuals, but rather a presentation of char- 
acteristic features in teaching. 

In addition to the series of twenty stenographic reports of 
lessons, I have made two different studies in observation: the 
first, a series of one hundred random observations in various 
subjects of the curriculum for the purpose of counting and noting 
the number and the nature of the questions ; the second, a series 
of ten observations of selected classes, each class having been 
followed through the activities of an entire school day for the 
purpose of studying the nature of the question-and-answer stimu- 
lus in the aggregate as it is administered to school children daily. 

The first series of one hundred observations made at different 
times and in different schools, for purposes of recording question- 
ing activity, is shown below. Every class observed is reported 
accurately, even if it chanced to be largely a laboratory period 
or a reading lesson in the literature of a foreign language. If 
there were no questions asked during the period a zero repre- 
sents the fact. 



The Investigations n 



TABLE I 

Showing the Number of Questions Recorded for a Series of 

One Hundred Random Observations in Six Subjects 

of the High School Curriculum 



English 
69 
129 
70 
68 
94 

18 



39 
97 
74 

120 
49 
89 

102 
55 

200 
25 



1 In the Modern Language column the classes reflecting high questioning 
activity used the modern method of teaching, requiring pupils to speak 
the foreign language. It is the type of work represented on page 31. Where 
few questions are recorded, there was translation or written work, the lan- 
guage not being used orally. 

2 An unusual lesson because twenty-five of the thirty-four questions were 
asked by the pupils. The instructor encouraged questions, selecting with 
excellent judgment certain of them for experimentation and elabora- 
tion. The result was that the lesson developed an impetus born of real 
interest. I mention it because this lesson was unique in the series of one 
hundred. 

3 This lesson was one of a very few in the series where the text-book 
was used for consultation during the recitation. In most cases the text 
was closed apd put away, the pupils being expected to reproduce the con- 
tents. It was a pleasure to find classes encouraged to use their text as a 
book of reference. 

4 Lecture by teacher. 
6 Examination. 









Modern 


Mathe- 


Latin 


History 


Science 


Language ' 


matics 


105 


41 


122 


81 


165 


75 


142 


86 


60 


70 


66 


125 


54 


151 


86 


61 


94 


0< 


119 


35 


77 


64 


73 


123 


116 


42 


90 


71 


29 


120 


112 


60 


88 


176 


85 


90 


53 


34 2 


121 


77 


101 


61 


15 


116 


78 


122 


97 


105 


88 


93 


96 


473 


98 


110 


130 


98 


66 


86 


10 


84 


90 


93 


97 


O 8 


105 


82 


61 




93 


98 




76 




46 


56 




88 




104 


68 




80 




111 


89 




128 










68 










90 









1 2 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

The second series of ten studies represents the questioning 

activity of particular classes throughout an entire school day. 

In each observation, the class was accompanied from the hour of 

assembly until the time of dismissal, and the questioning activity 

was minutely recorded. My purpose in making this series of 

observations was to find out the kind and amount of intellectual 

stimulus meted out to our pupils by the questions, and what it 

means when reckoned in terms of a day's activity, or a week's 

activity. 

TABLE II 

Showing the Questioning Activity op Particular Classes 
Throughout an Entire School Day 

1. First Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Answers 

Questions (relative) 

9:25-10 German 176 176 

10 -10:40 English 88 88 

10:40-11:20 Algebra 120 120 

11:20-12 Latin 61 61 

12 -12:40 (Lunch period.) 

12:40- 1:20 Science 71 71 

1:20- 2 Gymnasium period (floor work, no 

questioning). 

516 516 

Notes on 1 , showing the nature of the work and types of questions employed: 

1. German (176 questions). The questions and answers were short, of 
the sort necessary to carry on conversation in German, and to give drill 
in the use of vocabulary and forms. The following are some of the ques- 
tions asked, — just enough to show the trend of the work and the type of 
question. 

Was ist das? (Edelweiss.) 
Gretchen, hast du das Edelweiss gesehen? 
Paul, kannst du das Edelweiss sehen? 
Kannst du das Edelweiss erreichen? 

2. English (88 questions). After thirteen minutes spent on a spelling 
exercise, the lesson began with a discussion of fables. 

What is the difference between a myth and a fable? 
Have you ever read any fables? 
How many have read Aesop's? 

Why is it that when people study mythology they are so much inter- 
ested in Greek mythology? 
To what source do we look for Greek mythology? (Homer.) 

3. Algebra (120 questions). These were largely upon the analysis of 
some problems in factoring, where questions followed each other closely 
and answers were brief. 



The Investigations 13 

4. Latin (61 questions). Short questions upon construction such as: 
What does the phrase " a sinistra cornu " mean? 

Why is the verb in that sentence in the singular? 

What case is " hostibus "? 

What is the antecedent of " Quod "? 

5. Science (71 questions). These were of a developmental nature. 

In these five class periods of forty minutes each, without deducting time 
for the change from class to class, the assignment of new work, etc., etc., 
the total time is 200 minutes, and the total number of questions recorded 
516, so that the rate is about 2.58 questions, and 2.58 answers per minute 
for each of the 200 minutes. 

2. Second Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Answers 

Questions (relative) 

Gymnasium 

History 93 93 

German 29 29 

Mathematics 116 116 

Latin 66 66 

English 68 68 

372 372 

3. First Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Answers 

Questions (relative) 

English 113 113 

Mathematics 35 35 

Music 34 34 

Study period 

Ethics 52 52 

Latin 75 76 

English 39 39 

348 348 

4. Seventh Grade. Class Periods: 30 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

History 76 76 

Mathematics 85 85 

English (in two periods) 97 97 

Modern Languages (French) 65 65 

Science (geography) 88 88 

411 411 

5. First Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

English 74 74 

Science 34 34 

Latin 77 77 

Mathematics 77 77 

French 110 110 

372 372 



1 4 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

6. First Year High School. Class Periods: 30 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

Latin 42 42 

English 120 120 

Algebra 78 78 

German 10 10 

History 88 88 

338 338 

7. Second Year High School. Class Periods: 30 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

English 49 49 

French 70 70 

Latin 112 112 

German 93 93 

Study period 

Mathematics 93 93 

417 417 

8. Second Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

German 46 46 

Latin 90 90 

English 89 89 

Study period 

History 128 128 

Mathematics 130 130 

483 483 

9. First Year High School. Class Periods: 45 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

Declamation 102 102 

English 55 55 

Science (test) 15 15 

Mathematics 84 84 

German 114 114 

370 370 

10. Eighth Grade. Class Periods: 40 Minutes 

Questions Answers 

Assembly (special) 

English 200 200 

Science 

Penmanship ) 

Music j 

Mathematics 56 56 

Reading (declamations by class) 20 20 

History (work done by teacher) 45 45 

321 321 



The Investigations 15 

In this series of ten observations (Table II) the average num- 
ber of questions for a day's activity is 395. I have no doubt 
that if any one of these classes had been followed for a period 
of one week or longer, the average would have remained prac- 
tically the same, a little higher or a little lower. It would not 
help us to know the absolute accuracy of the figure even if it 
were possible to secure it. What we do need to know is the 
direction in which our present practice is drifting, and the pace 
it is assuming. Considering that children in our schools are regu- 
larly held by our teachers, collectively, to a performance of some- 
thing like four hundred questions and four hundred answers in 
one day, and something like four hundred questions and four hun- 
dred answers the next day, and so on, we have in this situation 
alone a rather significant factor to reckon with in estimating 
standards of class-room efficiency. 



CHAPTER II 

EFFICIENCY OF INSTRUCTION AS MEASURED BY 
A LARGE NUMBER OF QUESTIONS 

When I asked a school principal what he considered fair ques- 
tioning activity for his teachers he replied, after reflection, that 
he supposed some of his teachers might ask forty-five questions 
in a forty-five minute period; that is, one question per minute. 
When I showed him the figures of a series of observations made 
in his school his reply was, " Why, when do they think?" a very 
good question for principals and teachers to answer. 

The fact that one teacher has the ability to quiz his pupils at 
the rate of two or three questions in a minute, is a matter of 
comparatively slight importance; the fact that one hundred dif- 
ferent class-rooms reveal the same methods in vogue is quite 
another matter. The fact that one history teacher attempts to 
realize his educational aims through the process of " hearing " the 
text-book, day after day, is unfortunate but pardonable; that 
history, science, mathematics, foreign language and English 
teachers, collectively, are following in the same groove, is a 
matter for theorists and practitioners to reckon with. 

The first impression borne in upon me while making the series 
of one hundred observations was that of the large number of 
questions. It was almost overwhelming, as I proceeded from 
class to class, to find two, three, and four questions per minute 
the speed of one teacher after another, in one subject after an- 
other. It seemed so preposterous that I was not satisfied until 
I had set the stop watch upon my own accomplishments in that 
direction and found that I could match the speed with ease. 

If these studies in observation and the material of the steno- 
graphic reports are to be of service to the professional work of 
supervisor and teacher, they must be interpreted in terms of 
their significance in the process of instruction. Let us consider 
first of all this fact of number. What suggestions do the figures 

16 



A Large Number of Questions 17 

in Tables I and II alone offer in measuring school or class 
efficiency ? 

First : The large number of questions suggests the main- 
tenance in the class room, for considerable portions of time, of 
a highly strung nervous tension where there should be natural 
and normal conditions. This high-pressure atmosphere is always 
a creation or reflection of the manner of the teacher, with whom 
it is sometimes wholly temperamental and sometimes only assumed 
in the class room for the purpose of gripping the attention of 
pupils. Attention once secured and the pace once established, it 
seems to be characteristic of class-room procedure to accelerate 
the tempo rather than to slow down to one that is more normal 
and more consistent with nature's own processes of mental 
activity. 

The teacher who has acquired the habit of conducting recita- 
tions at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred questions 
and answers per class-room period of forty-five minutes, has truly 
assumed the pace that kills. It is deadly to the nervous organism 
that maintains it and, by reflection, injurious to the children who 
live in that atmosphere. 

Second: The large number of questions suggests that the 
teacher is doing most of the work of the class hour instead of 
directing the pupils in the doing. One reason why one hundred 
and fifty questions can be asked in forty minutes is due to the 
fact that the teacher can think more rapidly and talk more rapidly 
than his pupils, and so, in order to cover a large amount of 
subject matter, he carries the trend of the lesson through his ques- 
tions, the pupils merely punctuating the series with short answers 
from the text. This situation can best be realized by reading a 
selection from a stenographic report in history. 1 

Teacher: A Congressional investigation cannot be justified unless the 
charges are serious. Noiv the charges against Arnold in his Philadelphia 
career were of a petty sort; he was charged with embezzling funds en- 
trusted to him, and the charge that he had used an army wagon was not 
enough to have disgraced him before the country. 

On what occasion had Arnold failed to receive credit for what he had 
accomplished? 

Pupil: At Saratoga. 



x The oral work of the teacher is printed in italic; that of the pupil in 
plain type. 



1 8 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Who received the credit of the Battle of Saratoga? 

Pupil: Gates. 

Teacher: And Gates' 'participation in that battle had been very small. 
If you consider Arnold's character, his career, and the sort of man he 
was, you can appreciate the treatment Congress accorded to fiim; his 
career was marked with brilliancy, he had been in command of one division 
of the American troops, and the difficulties on that march had been par- 
ticularly great. He had taken part in the charge at Quebec, and his 
reputation had been greatly enhanced. The result of the Battle of Sara- 
toga was due largely to Arnold's part in it, but Congress, in its usual 
mismanagement of its forces which is characteristic throughout the revolu- 
tion, failed to recognize his services. What does Washington's attitude 
toward Arnold seem to have been? 

Pupil: He esteemed him highly, and was very kind to him. 

Teacher: What was the character of the reprimand which Washington 
gave to Arnold? 

Pupil: He said he would try to gain back his good name as well as 
he could. 

Teacher: The whole language of that reprimand was as gentle as he 
could make it. They were unable to remove him from the army altogether. 
What feature of Arnold's treason do you think was most reprehensible,* 
most open to criticism? 

Pupil: It was through him that Andre came to his death, he let Andre 
die really in his place. 

Teacher: That is the way it looks, that is one bad feature; although 
perhaps Arnold is not open to as much criticism there as you may think. 
He went to General Clinton and offered to surrender himself. When you 
consider how he got the command at West Point, you will find there the 
worst point in his whole career. He got the command from his best 
friend Washington; the betrayal was not only a betrayal of America, 
but of his best friend Washington, and Washington felt the disgrace per- 
haps even more than Arnold himself. 

I want to take up briefly the discussion of Andre's punishment. What 
were the arguments brought forward before the committee of investi- 
gation against the execution of Andre on the charge of being a spy? 

Pupil: He was the mere tool of Arnold; the information he carried 
was second-hand; he was simply a messenger between Arnold and Clinton. 

Teacher: What question of military law came up there, do you know? 
Whether a messenger traveling under a— 

Pupil: Under a flag of truce; he wasn't, was he? 

Teacher: What might be interpreted as a flag of truce? 

Pupil: A passport from Arnold. 

Teacher: The British tried to make as much as they could out of 
that; what was said to that argument? 

I will quote also the last half of a chemistry recitation — a small 
portion of a lesson of more than usual interest. In this work there 



A Large Number of Questions 19 

was, however, active participation by every pupil during the 
laboratory work just completed. 

Teacher: This salt you have made is as good as any salt you ever 
ate, and I venture to say, a good deal better, and I am going to ask in 
your home work that you find out why. I want you, before you go, to 
look at this disk of common salt; it is made by evaporating a salt solution 
down very, very slowly, and you get a very pretty cubical-shaped crystal,— 
I want you to look at those. What is the formula for common salt, John? 

John: Na CI. 

Teacher: Anyone decided it would be different? Of what acid is it a 
salt, Irma? 

Irma : Hydro — 

Teacher: You cannot pronounce it? 

Irma : Hydrochloric. 

Teacher: Can you name another salt of hydrochloric acid? 

Pupil : Chlorine — no, sodium. 

Teacher: I want another, a salt of hydrochloric acid? 

Pupil: Potassium salt, calcium salt. 

Teacher: Wliat would be a formula for the potassium salt? 

Pupil: K CI. 

Teacher: What are you going to call all salts of "ic" acids? 

Pupil : ' ' ates. ' ' 

Teacher: This is the sodium salt of hydrochloric acid, what would 
you name it? 

Pupil: Sodium hydrochlorate. 

Teacher: What would the sodium salt of chlorous acid be, Edith? 
Effie? 

Pupil: Sodium chlorite. 

Teacher: What would be the sodium salt of hydrochloric acid? 

Pupil: Sodium hydrochlorate. 

Teacher: Is common salt usually called sodium hydrochlorate in the 
laboratory ? 

Pupil: Na CI. 

Teacher: Suppose I want to name it? What is Us formula? 

Pupil: Sodium hydrochlorate. 

Teacher: Is it called sodium hydrochlorate? I never speak of it as 
sodium hydrochlorate. 

Pupil: Sodium chloride. 

Teacher: In this case, the reason why we call it sodium chloride 
instead of sodium hydrochlorate is what? What name do we give to this 
(Cu 0)? 

Pupil : Copper oxide. 

Teacher: H S? 

Pupil: Hydrogen sulphide. 

Teacher: What name do I give to this? (Na CI)? 

Pupil: Sodium chloride. 



20 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Why do I name it with a name that ends in "ide" instead 
of calling it sodium hydrochlorate? 

Pupil: It only has two elements in it. 
> I Teacher: All right; and substances that have only two elements in 
\them are called what? 

Pupil : ' ' ides. ' ' 

Teacher: The real name for this is sodium hydrochlorate, tut we call 
it sodium chloride, because it has only two elements in it; what are the 
two elements in sodium chlorite? 

Pupil: Sodium and chlorine. 

Teacher: What do you know about the physical properties of sodium? 

Pupil: Put sodium in water and hydrogen is obtained. 

Teacher: Physical or chemical property? 

Pupil : Chemical. 

Teacher: I asked for physical property. 

Pupil: It is a soft metal. 

Teacher: That is the peculiarity about it,— a soft metal. Here is 
chlorine, you have never seen it before. We are going to make some of 
it from the salt you have made in the laboratory, but at present I made 
some chlorine from other salt to show you how it looked. It is a decidedly 
green gas. You have not made any gas before that had a color; oM 
the gases you have made have been colorless gases. Colored gas and 
sodium go together to make this compound Na CI. You cannot tell any- 
thing at all about the properties of a compound by knowing something 
about the elements that go to make it up, can you? And you cannot 
tell anything about an element from knowing about the compound it 
comes from. Does sodium suggest to you common salt? This salt is a very 
valuable compound in the household, we use it every day, and know how 
important it is. I want you to notice tJiat the physical properties of that 
substance are not like these elements. Imagine anybody trying to season 
his food with chlorine. And yet salt is a very valuable compound, and the 
elements taken by themselves would be exceedingly injurious to life. Sup- 
pose you were asked to find the molecular weight of this compound, Na CI, 
how would you find it? Don't know how to find the molecular weight? 
Lucy, do you? Do you, Frances? Have you ever found it? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Yes, once or twice. How do you find it in the case of 
sodium chlorite? What will I have to add together? 

Pupil: Weights of the elements that are in it. 

Teacher: Of course; what is the molecular weight of salt? 

Pupil: 58.5. 

Teacher: To find out the percentage of sodium in sodium chloride. 

Pupil : _f£_ 
58.5 
Teacher: Can you tell me, roughly, wMt percentage that would be; 
suppose I scratch of some of this. 
Pupil: About 30 or 40 per cent. 



A Large Number of Questions 21 

Teacher: About two-fifths, isn't it? Somewhere around 40 per cent. 
Put a question mark after it. Well, if the percentage of sodium is 40 
per cent, what is the percentage of chloride, George? 

Pupil: 60 per cent. 

Teacher: 60 per cent of chloride in common salt; what percentage in 
an ounce of common salt, Alice? 

Alice: The same proportion. 

Teacher: Of course, the same proportion; and if I should tell you 
that an ounce of common salt is about 28 grams of common salt, could 
you tell me how many grams of chlorine I could get out of common salt? 

Pupil: 60 per cent. 

Teacher: And that is about 17 grams out of an ounce of common 
salt; how could I find out how many liters of chlorine, roughly speaking, 
in an ounce of common salt; how could I find out? 

Pupil: You must know the weight of a liter. 

Teacher: If 1 told you that chlorine is 35.5 times as heavy as 
hydrogen, could you tell me how to find the weight of chlorine, Margaret? 

Margaret: Multiply that by the weight of a liter of hydrogen. 

Teacher: What is the weight of a liter of hydrogen, Buth? 

Pupil: 98/1000. 

Teacher: — of a gram. If I multiply I get something Mice 3.15; how 
can I find out hoiv many liters there are in 17 grams of chlorine gas, Alice? 

Alice: I don't know. 

Teacher: Do you know the weight of one liter of chlorine gas? Which 
figure on the board represents that? 

Pupil: 3.15. 

Teacher: If one liter weighs 3.15, how many liters in 17 grams? 

Pupil: You divide. 

Teacher: Yes, divide wliat? 

Pupil: 17 into — 

Teacher: Into what? 

Pupil: By three and a half. 

While the students in the Department of Secondary Education 
of Teachers College were analyzing some stenographic reports, 
they were asked to comment upon the relative amount of teacher 
and pupil activity. They went about it in a most systematic 
way, counting the lines or the words spoken by the teacher and 
pupils. One may say with a degree of fairness that this is not a 
gauge of activity because it takes no account of subjective activity; 
however, it does indicate with sufficient accuracy the amount of 
time consumed by teacher and pupils in oral expression. I have 
had the method followed with other stenographic reports, and I 
present the totals, giving the percentage of teacher and pupil 
activity in each case. 



2 2 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

TABLE III 

Showing Percentages of Teacher and Pupil Activity in Twenty 
Stenographic Reports, as Measured by Spoken Words 

Teacher activity Pupil activity 

1. History 80 20 

2. " 57 42 

3. " 59 41 

4. " 75 25 

5. " 62 38 

6. " 58 42 

7. English 29 71 

8. " 60 40 

9. " 43 57 

10. " 71 29 

11. " 64 36 

12. " 46 54 

13. Latin 60 40 

14. Science 80 20 

15. " 75 25 

16. Mathematics 67 2 33 

17. " 90 2 10 

18. Modern Language 67 2 33 

19. " 70 30 

20. " 57 43 

Average 64 l 36 

After reading the Stenographic Lesson Reports published in the 
Teachers College Record, September, 1910, the principal of a 
city school wrote me that he was prompted to a tour of inspec- 
tion in his school to see if his teachers were doing the large amount 
of work that seemed to characterize teacher activity in the Reports. 
By a random estimate he placed the percentage of teacher activity 
at 85 per cent, 95 per cent, and in a few instances 100 per cent 
(where he found teachers lecturing). His investigation brought 
him promptly to the conclusion that the reason why our pupils 
gain so little in intellectual power is because our teachers do the 
intellectual work. 

Third : The large number of questions suggests that whenever 
teachers, either individually or collectively, preserve such a pace 
for any length of time, the largest educational assets that can be 
reckoned are verbal memory and superficial judgment. It is quite 

1 The average for the series shows teacher activity 64 per cent and the 
pupil activity 36 per cent, which means that in twenty class rooms selected 
at random in our best schools two-thirds of the oral expression was that 
of the teacher, while the other third was divided amongst the 20 or 40 pupils 
present in the class room. 

2 Two lessons in mathematics and one in modern language are designedly 
developmental lessons. 



A Large Number of Questions 23 

obvious that with the rapid fire method of questioning there is 
no time allowed a pupil to go very far afield in his experience in 
order to recall or to associate ideas in fruitful ways. He is called 
upon merely to reflect somebody else — the author of his text- 
book generally — in small and carefully dissected portions, or to 
give forth snap judgments at the point of the bayonet. The 
following short sequence of questions illustrates my meaning : 

Do you think Julius Caesar or Augustus the first emperor? Why? 
(Judgment given by text-book.) 

Give me the succession of rulers after Augustus. 

Do you know who succeeded Augustus? (Several questions finally 
brought answer Tiberius.) 

What relation was he to Augustus? 

What is the present principle of succession in England, for instance? 
(Answered in part and at random by two or three pupils, and the in- 
structor.) 

What was Augustus technically? 

What was he officially? 

and so on through sixty questions and sixty answers in a thirty- 
three minute period, an average of two questions and two answers 
per minute. And this was by no means an extreme lesson ; in 
fact, it was one of more than ordinary interest. On the whole 
it was representative of the best type of question-and-answer reci- 
tation in history ; but even with this relatively moderate pace in 
questioning, what opportunity could possibly be given to pupils 
to get beyond the realm of superficial memory of the text ? 

Fourth : The large number of questions suggests that there 
is no time in the mechanics of the school room to cultivate the 
gentle art of expression. The query goes up from educators and 
thoughtful parents everywhere, " Why do our young people ex- 
press themselves so badly?" "What are our schools doing to 
cultivate the powers of speech ? " The only way to develop 
powers of speech is to give opportunity for their exercise under 
skilled guidance. When the day's work — yes, the week's work, — 
is so largely given over to rapid questioning, there is no time for 
niceties of speech. When there are from two to five answers per 
minute, each supposedly reflecting a mental process, there is little 
time given to correction of crudities in utterance; furthermore, 
it frequently seems that the teacher is so gratified to catch a glim- 
mer of an idea from a pupil, that he will promptly seize it, 



24 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

amplify it, clothe it fittingly, the pupil meanwhile thinking he has 
said something creditable. Why does the teacher do this? For 
some reason that is real or imaginary he has set himself a pace 
and he cannot allow the time necessary for a pupil to recall, asso- 
ciate and express an idea. If this happened occasionally one 
might consider it justified, but it is a very common situation with 
high pressure questioners. 

I quote from the introductory pages of an English lesson every 
answer representing the oral expression of the pupils for the first 
twenty minutes of the class period. 

Five. 

On the second syllable. 

I don't know. 

Too choppy. 

Flashes. 

By flashes was the darkened wood lighted. 

I think "The darkened wood by flashes was lit up." 

No, too many syllables in the first part. 

"Blinding to sight." 

Can you have any rhyme in blank verse? 

Too many syllables. 

That is a rhyme. 

No, I don't think so. 

Three out of five. 

Four out of five. 

Yes. 

"Bain" and "twain" a rhyme. 

When he started to draw the circle. 

Yes. 

Very good. 

"Dark and awesome wood." 

"Eunes and rhymes." 

Alliteration. 

The ball of fire. 

The wind snapping the trees. 

A couple of places it wasn't correct. 

The second line. 

The cakes of ice — an extra syllable. 

"The sky is dyed with red and gold" — that was very good; and where 
the lights began to come out, you can fairly see them come out. 

The "Hudson's highway." 

Yes. 

The crash of the ice doesn't sound quite like the rest of it does. 

I thought that was good. 

According to the tide. 



A Large Number of Questions 25 

I think it makes you think a little of the description of the water 
snakes, the first part. 

I think "When the ice went floating by, green as emerald." 

The way it went floating by. 

"Cracked and groaned and roared and howled." 

Yes. 

An extra syllable in "and hid them in the seams of rock upon the 
mountain side." 

Yes. 

Isn't that too long, "and now the South wind drifted by?" 

The last line is still too long. 

I don't think "And thus the butterflies were made" is long enough. 

No. 

There is a good choice of words in "And lifted up on many colored 
wings. ' ' 

About the waves lapping on the shore. 

I have set the answers alone in this way with intent to make 
them stand for what they are in the way of oral expression. If 
I had quoted the full text of the lesson, the reader would prob- 
ably have been impressed, as the observer was, with certain con- 
tent values, and might not have observed that the individual pupils 
were given almost no opportunity for oral expression. Up to this 
point the teacher was doing 85 per cent of the work ; the pupils, 
collectively, 15 per cent. 

Fifth : The large number of questions suggests that there is 
little thought given to the needs of individuals. The teacher sets 
the pace -in his questioning : the pupils follow as a body, or drop 
by the wayside. When pupils become interested in their work 
and begin to think for themselves, it is very natural for them to 
ask questions, and they will do it invariably if allowed to do so. 
In the elementary school, the children are encouraged to seek in- 
formation, but in high school there is no time apparently for indi- 
vidual initiative. Take what the text-book gives you and be 
satisfied, seems to be the watchword of many class rooms. A 
glance through the stenographic reports shows that few questions 
are asked by the pupils, and when asked, they are passed over 
apologetically or deferred to a more convenient season. The mo- 
ment we admit that we ask from 75 to 175 questions in a class 
period, we commit ourselves as " drivers " of youth instead of 
" leaders " ; drill masters instead of educators. 

Sixth : The large number of questions suggests that we are 
coming, more and more, to make the class room the place for 



26 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

displaying knowledge instead of a laboratory for getting and 
using it. At the close of a class hour, the teacher assigns a 
lesson for the next day; the pupils take the books home for 
the purpose of learning the lesson ; the following day the teacher 
gives the pupils the opportunity to display how much or how 
little they learned. In some classes this represents the process 
of class activity from the beginning of the year to the end. 
Hearing the lesson or, quite aptly, " backing the book " is the 
function of education. There is little effort made to adjust 
or use knowledge so acquired, or to work it over with knowledge 
previously acquired. 

Seventh : The large number of questions suggests that in 
actual practice there is very little effort put forth to teach our 
boys and girls to be self-reliant, independent mental workers. 
The discrepancy between our theory and practice is nowhere 
more patent. With the tremendous pressure incident to the re- 
hearsal of questions numbering from seventy to one hundred 
and seventy, for the purpose of covering every conceivable issue 
expressed in the pages of a text assignment, the teacher loses 
sight of the fact that he has a youth to teach through the 
medium of his subject. There is no time to teach him how to 
study: how to organize subject matter, how to judge relative 
worths of facts studied, what to memorize. Even if the teacher 
himself possesses a plan of work that is in itself a model of 
organization, its value is likely to be lost sight of in the rapidity 
and intensity of questioning activity. If there is no time for the 
teacher's own fine intellectual work to be made apparent it is 
not to be expected that time will be found for the slower process 
of forming and fixing habits of study with boys and girls. 

There is no use in claiming to teach boys and girls how to 
study, and how to command their own intellectual forces by the 
current practice of keeping them at the point of the bayonet in 
rehearsal of text-book facts at the rate of two or four per 
minute. 

In Conclusion : The large number of questions suggests an 
almost total absence, in the practice of our class rooms, of any 
psychological principles underlying aims or methods. We be- 
lieve that youth is the time in which to form habits of thought 
and action. We believe that habits can be formed by " focaliza- 



A Large Number of Questions 27 

tion plus drill in attention." 1 We believe that we can fix habits 
only by giving them exercise; that they will function as they 
are taught to function, and for the purposes for which they 
are taught to function. Our professional creed, includes all 
these tenets and more. Now we desire to train pupils to habits 
of independent thinking. There is no honest teacher living who 
would disclaim this aim for his school or his class room, and yet 
with the customary practices set forth above, teachers furnish 
little or no incentive to independent thinking. We all know that 
boys and girls show evidences of good healthy intellectual initia- 
tive in affairs outside the class room, but there is not much op- 
portunity for it in class; if they think at all they must think in 
the groove with everybody else. What has become of our 
psychological aim? 

We possess another educative aim in our desire to broaden 
the intellectual horizon of our pupils. This may be accom- 
plished by inviting or compelling students to make associations 
of new with old experiences. The teacher's mission is to furnish 
the incentive for the making of many associations, not the asso- 
ciations themselves. This aim can never be realized by assum- 
ing the speed of the Twentieth Century Limited through the re- 
hearsal of text-book lessons, day in, day out, following an in- 
troduction such as this : 

Where does to-day's lesson begin, Miss A? 

Will you recite the first paragraph, Miss B? 

Is that right, Miss C? 

Will you go on from there, Miss D? 

Where have you heard of the Ethiopians before, Miss E? 

We recognize as another immediate aim of instruction that 
our pupils should form the habit of standing in a dignified 
manner before their fellows, and giving expression to a thought 
in concise and correct form. This certainly seems to be a simple 
requirement easily fulfilled ; yet in our practice we are in such a 
hurry to snatch a bit of an answer here and a bit there that a boy 
is allowed to shamble to his feet — astride of his chair possibly — 
mumble the words " crossed the Hudson at West Point " and 
slink back into his seat. It is not worth while — /there is too 



ley, The Educative Process, p. 123. 



28 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

much else to do — to stop for crudities in manner and speech! 
Thus the gap widens between our professional aims and our 
daily practices. 

A school principal recently sent the following notice to his 
teachers : Please write out for me just what you have done 
this week in habit- formation with your classes in English (his- 
tory, science, modern language, etc.) He nearly caused a stam- 
pede amongst his teachers. He was asking them to measure 
their daily practices by the side of their professional aims, and 
to reveal in detail their methods of applying their psychology 
to actual teaching. 

In the early days of my teaching I was called upon to plan 
my course of study for the entire year in the first-year high 
school English and to indicate for each lesson just what psycho- 
logical aims I would strive to realize. The column reserved for 
these statements read something like this : 

Memory, emotions, will; 
Emotions, will, memory ; 
Memory, judgment, will ; 
Will, judgment, memory. 

The real difficulty lay in trying to avoid the appearance of 
monotony in arranging the limited assortment of words one 
hundred and seventy-five times. However, when the syllabus 
was once completed, my difficulties were at an end, for I could 
teach my lessons exactly as I pleased and was never again seri- 
ously troubled by the relative order of will, judgment, and emo- 
tions. It would have been a much more serious matter if I 
had been called upon at the end of the sixth, or the twelfth, 
or the twentieth week to tell what specific things I had done 
that week in training judgments in English work through the 
medium of Silas Marner. Such a request would have revealed 
my line of questioning in order to be in any way specific. I 
believe that supervision needs to force such issues as this if 
psychology is ever to take its rightful place in instruction. 

These pages offer a somewhat severe arraignment of class- 
room practice, I confess, and yet I believe the situation to be 
modestly stated and the conditions to be generally characteristic. 
The teachers who were chosen for the official observations 
quoted and reported were all men and women of unquestioned 



A Large Number of Questions 29 

attainments, many of them with qualifications for leadership 
sufficient to carry their pupils to the highest goal set by modern 
educational theory. I am convinced that the faults in practice, 
since they are so general, must be attributed to the absence of 
any stable educational goal, and to shifting purposes in teach- 
ing, and not to inefficiency of individual teachers. When I find 
a teacher of history wearing himself out in a nervous struggle 
to quiz minutely upon five pages of text, never allowing thought 
to wander from the confines of those pages, I am led to believe 
that his educational goal is the storing of memory. It certainly 
is his goal in practice, if not in theory, and it is practice that 
counts. Such a good teacher should not be allowed to live up 
to such a false goal. When I find a teacher of English 
doing artistic work in " appreciation " and wholly neglecting 
oral expression, my inference is that " appreciation of litera- 
ture " is his only goal. When one teacher of modern language 
confines his work to the translation of the foreign text into 
English, it is quite evident that his goal is different from that 
of the teacher who puts the foreign language into use as the 
medium of conversation and study of literature. These are 
some of the problems of supervision : To unify the purposes of 
teaching, and then to see to it that teachers measure their prac- 
tices by these unified purposes. Until there is some unity in 
purpose we cannot censure teachers altogether for vacillating, 
wasteful and negative methods. 



Is the Number of Questions a FULL Measure of Efficiency 
in Instruction? 

The inference may perhaps be drawn from the foregoing 
pages that efficiency may be tested wholly by the number of 
questions; that the quality of the questions, hence the qual- 
ity of instruction, bears a direct relation to the number 
of questions. If this is true, then with increase in quan- 
tity there must be decrease in quality and, conversely, 
with decrease in quantity there must be relative increase 
in quality. It would seem that we might formulate a rule that 
would read thus : If a teacher asks something like two hundred 
or more questions in a class period, the quality of those ques- 



30 



The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 



tions must be reckoned at a very low value, say 25 per cent; 
if he questions at the rate of one hundred and fifty per class 
room period, then we admit a slightly higher valuation in qual- 
ity, perhaps 50 per cent; if he gets down to one hundred ques- 
tions, the efficiency mark would rise correspondingly to 75 per 
cent; and with fifty questions in a recitation, the standard of 
quality would approximate 100 per cent. 

If we could find that there is a direct relation between quan- 
tity and quality, it would be a relatively easy matter to increase 
the efficiency of instruction at once in all schools by issuing an 
ultimatum to the effect that no teacher should ever ask more 
than eighty, or seventy, or sixty questions in a class period. I 
am sufficiently awake to the evils of rapid questioning to believe 
that such a mandate would bring certain relief to the situation 
if it accomplished nothing more than to remove the nervous 
tension. It might, however, be only a partial remedy. 

Such a sweeping inference regarding the relation between the 
quantity and the quality of questions may be unsafe. It is pos- 
sible, however, to test the premise by making a comparison be- 
tween the lessons containing the greatest number of questions 
and those containing the smallest number. For this purpose I 
have divided the twenty stenographic lessons into two groups : 
Group I, including the lessons with fewer than ninety questions ; 
Group II, including the lessons with ninety questions or more, 
the number ninety being a somewhat arbitrary division line. By 
this classification the lessons fall into the following groups : 



TABLE IV 

Showing the Grouping of the Twenty Stenographic Lessons 



Group I 



History , 



English 



Science 

Mathematics . 



Group II 



Questions 
41 
66 


History 

English . 

Science. 
Latin . . 
Mathem; 
Modern 




Questions 
90 
94 






125 






142 


69 
70 




94 
129 


73 

74 
86 

70 


atics 

Language 


122 
105 
165 
123 
161 
196 



A Large Number of Questions 31 

The history lesson with forty-one questions and the modern 
language lesson with one hundred and ninety-six represent the 
extremes of questioning activity. It is obviously impossible to 
make any close comparison between history questions and Ger- 
man questions, and yet it is possible to draw from each lesson 
the aims and purposes of the respective teachers in using their 
subject as a medium of instruction, and to measure these results. 
The history lesson is quoted in part on page 17. There is 
sufficient of the content to show that the purpose of the lesson 
is to rehearse facts and to acquire more facts. It is a " pour- 
ing in " process — pouring into the note books an assortment of 
facts to be consumed in preparation for examination. But there 
are only forty-one questions, hence we should like to rank the 
quality of instruction very high indeed, but in justice it cannot 
be done. 

The German lesson, on the other hand, is one in which the 
attention of a group of ten-year-old pupils is held at the point 
of the bayonet for forty-five minutes to interpret one hundred 
and ninety-six sentences in a foreign language, and to give back 
one hundred and ninety-six replies, all in the strange tongue. I 
quote a brief selection to show the type of questions. 1 

Dr. W. : Was machen denn diese Kinder hier? 

Class: Sie machen einen Schneemann. 

Dr. W. : Nimm den Stock. Zeig mir den Schneemann. 

Girl: Ich zeige dir den Schneemann. 

Class: Du zeigst den Schneemann. 

Er zeigt den Schneemann. 

Sie zeigt den Schneemann. 
Dr. W. : Noch einmal! Ich zeige Ihnen. 
Class: Ich zeige Ihnen den Schneemann. 

Du zeigst Ihnen den Schneemann. 

Er zeigt Ihnen den Schneemann. 

Sie zeigt Ihnen den Schneemann. 
Dr. W. : Hat der Schneemann einen Hut? 
Class: Nein, er hat keinen Hut. 
Dr. W. : Zeige mir die Augen des Schneemannes. 
Class: Hier sind die Augen des Schneemannes. 
Dr. W. : Zeige mir die Nase des Schneemannes. 
Class: Hier ist die Nase des Schneemannes. 
Dr. W. : Zeige mir den Mund des Schneemannes. 
Class: Hier ist der Mund des Schneemannes. 



1 Max Walter's German Lessons, p. 105. (Scribner, 1911.) 



2)2 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Dr. W. : Hier ist der Hals des Sehneemannes. Noch einmal! 

Class {repeating three times) : Hier ist der Hals des Sehneemannes. 

Dr. W. : Zeige mir die Ziihne des Sehneemannes. Siehst du die Zahne? 
Er hat keine Zahne; er ist zu alt; sie sind ausgef alien, er muss zum 
Zahnarzt. Was ist ihm ausgefallen — fallen out? 

Class: Die Zahne sind ihm ausgefallen. 

Dr. W. : Gib deinem Freunde, deinem zweiten Freunde in der zweiten 
Eeihe den Stock. 

Girl: Ich gebe dir den Stock. 

Class: Du gibst ihm den Stock, sie gibt ihm den Stock. 

Dr. W.: Gib ihm den Stock. 

Girl: Ich gebe dir den Stock. 

Boy: Du gibst mir den Stock. 

Class: Sie gibt ihm den Stock. 

Dr. W. : Noch einmal, lauter! 

Class: Sie gibt ihm den Stock. 

Dr. W. {to girl) : Was hat sie ihm gegeben? Meinen Hut? 

Class: Nein, sie hat ihm den Stock gegeben. 

Dr. W. : Hat sie ihm meinen Stock gegeben? 

Class: Sie hat ihm deinen Stock gegeben. 

Dr. W.: Zeige mir das Miidchen, das ihm den Stock gibt. 

Boy: Ich zeige den Madchen. 

Dr. W. : Das Miidchen. 

Class: Ich zeige das Madchen das ihm den Stock gibt. 

Dr. W. : Ich zeige das Madchen das dem Schneemann den Stock gibt. 

Class: Ich zeige das Madchen das dem Schneemann den Stock gibt. 

Dr. W. : Noch einmal, alle zusammen! 

Class {shouting) : Er zeigt das Madchen das dem Schneemann den 
Stock gibt. 

Dr. W. : Lege den Stock auf den Tisch. 

Boy: Ich lege den Stock auf den Tisch. 

Dr. W.: Geh auf deinen Platz. 

Boy: Ich gehe auf meinen Platz. 

Class: Du gehst auf deinen Platz. Er geht auf seinen Platz. 

Here the questions and answers are brief with only slight 
variation in the construction. The purpose of the lesson is to 
put the new words and the new forms of the foreign tongue 
into immediate use. The recitation is a laboratory period for 
getting and using knowledge, not for storing it away in a note- 
book against the day of examination. Hence it seems evident 
that the history lesson with its limited number of questions fails 
in efficiency according to the ideals of history teaching; and 
the German lesson, with its large number of questions, ranks 
high as an illustration of foreign language instruction. 

The modern language lesson reflecting one hundred and sixty- 



A Large Number of Questions 33 

one questions is similar in method to the one quoted, with the 
difference that it is adapted to pupils of high school age. The 
lesson of one hundred and twenty-three questions is a develop- 
mental lesson in modern language. The mathematics lesson re- 
flecting one hundred and sixty-five questions is a developmental 
lesson. 

Assuming now that there is a specific purpose in short ques- 
tions and short answers (hence more of them) for modern 
language work by the reform method (Reform Metode) and 
for developmental lessons where the successive steps in the de- 
velopment are short, we may exclude these types from further 
consideration and turn to the remaining lessons in Groups I and 
II. All of the remaining are of the usual type of question-and- 
answer lesson based upon text and home study — the kind of 
recitation we find in a large majority of our class rooms. It 
may be more illuminating to compare two lessons in one sub- 
ject. For this purpose the English group offers contrasts, the 
smallest number recorded being sixty-nine, and the largest one 
hundred and twenty-nine. Both lessons were given in the same 
school and with class periods that were identical. 

The first lesson (69 questions) is outlined by the teacher as 
follows : " To-day we want to finish our work on Cooper, recall 
some of the facts of his life, some of the things he did and 
some of the impressions we gained from reading his books and 
reading about him." The second lesson (129 questions) is based 
upon the Fourth Canto of " The Lady of the Lake." 

Both lessons begin with " the telling of the story " : Cooper's 
life; the story in the Fourth Canto. Omitting these portions, 
I will quote the more active part, a good half of each lesson. 



Selection From the Lesson on the Life and the Writings 
of Cooper (69 Questions in All) 

After a reference to some of the Leather Stocking stories the 
teacher asks : " What do you think of sequels as a rule, in the 
writing of books? Are any of your favorite stories written 
with sequels? Mary is bothered by the word sequel; who can 
help her out? What is a sequel?" 

Pupil: A sequel is a book that has the same characters in, and comes 
after the other one. 



34 TJie Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Did you get enough to understand it? George says a sequel 
is a book that has the same characters in, and comes after the first story. 
Now, do you know any sequel; have you read a book with a sequel? 

Pupil: Yes, the Iroquois. 

Pupil: Prisoners of Zenda. 

Pupil: Count of Monte Cristo. 

Philip: Monastery and the Abbott. 

Teacher: I am thinking of some good old standard boy and girl 
stories. 

Pupil: Pickwick Papers. 

Pupil : Little Women. 

Teacher: Yes; I was going back to Louisa Alcott, and the time she 
had to satisfy all the boys and girls. 

Pupil: Eight Cousins. 

Teacher: Yes. Do you like sequels as a rule? 

Pupil: It depends on the book. If the first book is not interesting, 
you don't care for a sequel, and if it is you want to go on. 

Teacher: Any other reasons why there might be some books that would 
not demand it? 

Pupil: Cooper writes so you don't need a sequel, he writes them so 
well, he ends his stories. 

Teacher: A book that needs a sequel is where he does not quite finish, 
and Cooper seems to finish all his stories. 

Pupil: You cannot have a book end up tragically and then have a 
sequel to it. 

Teacher: Yes, you cannot have a sequel when the hero dies. 

Teacher: Well, as a rule do you think a sequel is apt to be so suc- 
cessful a book as the first? 

Pupil: No; for after the first you get kind of tired, when you are 
reading of the same people. 

Teacher: How do you think the author feels? 

Pupil: I guess he is tired of writing on the same subject. 

Teacher: I think sometimes an author is, especially a sequel. That 
is one thing about sequels, Cooper was wonderfully successful as far as 
they were concerned. 

Pupil: I don't think Dickens got tired of writing sequels to Pick- 
wick Papers, because I think the sequel was more interesting than the 
first book. He wanted to show the common people how he felt about it, 
and he thought he would write all the time for their benefit. 

Teacher: The characters in Pickwick Papers seem to be so real you 
can go on inventing characters for them. It all depends on the book. 

Alfred: If you have a book, and at the end you have the story all 
finished, and you have a sequel, it is like another story. 

Teacher: Yes, that is true; you get really another story, as we have 
in Cooper. Cooper's life on the whole seems to be so serene and com- 
fortable we are interested to know he did have a little trouble. We feel 
that once in a while sorrow is an inspiration to a writer. The kind of 



A Large Number of Questions 35 

trouble that Cooper had was not the kind that might have inspired him 
to write. What difficulties did he have? 

Pupil: He was fond of quarreling. 

Teacher: What about? 

Pupil: About politics and his writings; I think he thought people 
treated him wrong. 

Teacher: Yes, indeed; what time did that trouble come in his life? 

Elsworth: Towards the end of his life a banquet was given in his 
honor, and he refused it, and brought a feeling against him, but before 
he died his friends planned another banquet, but he died before it was 
given. 

Teacher: Do you agree with Juliette that he was very fond of 
quarreling? 

Pupil: I think he was more or less a peaceful man. 

Pupil: He never tried to pick a quarrel, but never went out of his 
way to stop one. 

Pupil: He was always convinced he was in the right when they argued 
against him. 

Pupil: I think he was disagreeable as a young man. 

Teacher: What makes you think that? 

Pupil: It just said in a book I read that he was rather disagreeable, 
and people did not care to argue with him. 

Teacher: He was unwilling to see the other's point of view. 

Teacher: Let us see what these quarrels were about; what about his 
home life, did he have a happy home? 

Pupil: I think he had a fairly happy home. 

Teacher: Where did he live? 

Pupil: He lived up in the woods. 

Teacher: When you say in that general way he lived up in the woods, 
it doesn't sound as if he had a very comfortable home. The impression 
that he had a happy home is right. What about all these quarrels? They 
evidently had nothing to do with domestic affairs. 

Pupil: They were political affairs. 

Teacher: The politics of the times. Cooper, you remember, had spent 
a little part of his life just previous to all these difficulties in Europe. 
Did you get an impression about that right? 

Pupil: Yes, in France he had a chance to defend his country and that 
was what the quarrels were about. 

Teacher: I do not think your account goes very much into detail 
there. When he came back to this country, he found that he felt rather 
critical toward his own country, just as perhaps the people in England 
and in Erance had felt toward America, and when he criticized his 
country you can imagine the attitude of America and Americans toward 
Cooper. You may be perfectly willing to criticize your own country but 
when somebody else criticizes it how quickly you resent it. Do you know 
any other author who criticized America pretty sharply and aroused con- 
siderable opposition by it? 

Pupil : Dickens was quite sarcastic about America. He came over to 



36 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

America and went to the White House, and saw how the government went 
along, and just at that time we were having a lot of trouble; it was just 
at that time when — just after the war, and things were not going nicely; 
there were great debates; and when he went back to England he wrote 
a lot of sarcastic things about American senators. 

Alfred : I think he wrote the bad side of America. 

Teacher: Did he criticize our morals or our manners? 

Pupil: Our manners. 

Teacher: Very largely our manners. And how did the people feel 
about Dickens after he had gone home? 

Pupil: He was treated kindly and entertained very hospitably, and 
they thought it was kind of mean of him to have gotten all that kindness 
shown to him and then to go back and write something disagreeable. 

Teacher: It was not what guests usually do. There is a modern Eng- 
lish writer who criticized us pretty sharply not so very long ago. 

Pupil: An English writer always thinks he knows a little more than 
he does. 

Teacher: Don't you think that is rather the attitude that America 
took towards the criticism of our manners? 

Pupil: You hear a lot about an Englishman; he comes over and doesn't 
like the ways here, and he thinks he knows it all. 

Teacher: That is not exactly a fair attitude to take on our part. I 
am thinking of a modern English writer who came over and visited us, 
had a great deal of kindness shown him, and then went back and criticized 
Americans. Have you ever heard of Kipling criticizing us? So we find 
when Cooper came back and criticized his own people, told them what 
they had left undone, they resented it, and the last years of his life were 
rather stormy; he was in debates as to political questions and national 
questions in general. With what grade of writers do you associate Cooper! 

Pupil: In the introduction of American literature in the class with 
Scott. 

Teacher: An English writer at the same time; by the way, did they 
ever meet? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Yes, they met, and it was very delightful that these two 
romantic authors met as they happened to do. 

Teacher: I am thinking what American authors he was friendly with. 

Pupil: With a men's club, he was in that with Lowell, wasn't he? 

Teacher: I think his best friends were men that were very prominent 
in New York at that time, Bryant and Irving, and it mentions quite a 
few; Chancellor Kent. 

Teacher: Does that word "Chancellor" mean anything to you? To 
whom does that word mean anything? 

Pupil: The man highest in a college. 

Teacher: You think it was chancellor of a college? I do not think 
it was meant to be used that way about Kent. 

Pupil: I think it was some kind of a government official. 



A Large Number of Questions t>7 

Teacher: Who can get a little nearer? Does chancellor mean any- 
thing to you {addressing pupil) ? 

Pupil: Chancellor of the Exchequer. 

Pupil: I think it is used more in England, it has something to do 
with England. 

Teacher: You think it is an English term, do you? And was no one 
at all curious about it when you read "Chancellor Kent"? You felt per- 
fectly satisfied to say to yourself, That is an English term, or it means 
Head of a University, or Chancellor of the Exchequer? Juliette, will you 
remember to hold the class responsible for it next time; not to be re- 
sponsible for it, but to hold the class responsible? We have had a number 
of friends of Irving mentioned, and friends of his club. What was the 
name of that club? 

Pupil: The Bread and Cheese Club. 

Teacher: Was Bryant there? 

Pupil: Yes; Oliver Wendell Holmes and Morse. 

Teacher: Was he a member of the original club? 

Pupil: Later on. 

Teacher: Morse made what discovery? 

Pupil : Telegraph. 

Teacher: It was a club composed of men of varying talents. Have 
you ever heard of another club where the men got together and talked 
of their professions, literary things, and perhaps introducing into their 
number men of other professions, — famous clubs? 

Pupil: Longfellow, Lowell and Hawthorne. 

Teacher: I do not believe Hawthorne was a member. 

Pupil : Benjamin Franklin. 

Teacher: You come by and by to two or three very famous clubs 
where men gathered to talk about literature and their professions. 

Philip: That one— the Hartford Eest? 

Teacher: Where do you hear of them, — well, Everett, anything else 
about these men? 

Pupil: They were mostly poets, I think, and they lived in and around 
Hartford, and they formed a club; they were not afterwards known, they 
never became very great writers. 

Teacher: There were some very well known writers; and that little 
crowd of men did form a club. 

Pupil: We don't read their poetry very much now. 

Teacher: No, rather as a matter of curiosity; the crowd of men I 
have in mind you will come across soonest is Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel 
Johnson, in England. 

I want to announce the work for next time, and I want to hand back 
to you the themes I have corrected, and I shall ask you to bring them 
next time so that we may enter our misspelled words in our books. The 
work for next time is to take a portion of the chapter on Bryant, read as 
far, please, in that chapter, as the discussion of American literature at 
the time Bryant wrote, on page 176; that covers practically the whole 



38 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

of Bryant's life, and leaves for another time only the discussion of Bryant 
as a writer. 

The first word misspelled is the word "really," the next is the adverb 
' ' too ' ', the third is a new word, the word ' ' frivolous. ' ' How do you 
spell that word? 

Pupil : F-r-i-v-i-l-o-u-8. 

Teacher: How will you put it down, Frederick? 

Frederick : F-r-i-v-od-o-u-s. 

Teacher: Another word, "tantalize"; George Meyer, how are you 
going to write that? 

George: T-a-n-t-ad-i-z-e. 

Teacher: The class may pass back to your own room, and not back 
to my room. 

Selection From the Lesson on " The Lady of the Lake " 
(Fourth Canto) 

Teacher: That is as far as you went; a good place to stop, in one 
way ; why .' 

Pupil: Most exciting. 

Teacher : An effective, dramatic moment. Anyone who has any further 
light to give on the characters of these people we are speaking about? 
do you know any more of them than you did last time ? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Of whom? 

Pupil: Roderick Dhu. 

Teacher: What? 

Pupil: He can be very hospitable and courteous, when he likes. 

Teacher: Anything else? 

Pupil: When he gave the signal, and the men jumped from the bushes, — 
he had promised to take Fitz James to the lowlands, and he had him 
right in his power, and he could have killed him if he had wanted to. 

Teacher: What did that show, — the fact that he didn't? 

Pupil : That he was true to his word. 

Teacher: Truth and courtesy. What else? 

Pupil: Sense of fairness. 

Teacher: What else? Generosity? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Anything else, Miss F.? 

Miss F. : Fitz James shows his fearlessness when he says to Roderick 
he isn't afraid of him — 

Pupil: I think also when he gave this ring to this girl. 

Teacher: That was fair and gracious, too. Anything more? 

Pupil: He was a warrior too, — where he says he has always been used 
to fighting, and will trust to his sword. 

Teacher: And there is something else, something so fine that other 
characters talk about him; where were the women and children? 

Pupil: On the island. (Laugh.) 



A Large Number of Questions 39 

Teacher: Yes, all measures taken for their protection. As a rule, 
do the characters seem lifelike? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Which is the most lifelike one to you, Mr. J.? 

Mr. J. : I think Fitz James. 

Teacher: How many suitors has Elaine, by the way. 

Pupil : Three. 

Teacher: Who are they? 

Pupil: Graeme, Eoderick Dhu, and Fitz James. 

Teachers: Are those men distinct, three suitors or three distinct men? 

Pupil: Three distinct men. 

Teacher: I am going to ask you to write about this next time, so 
think about it, please. From the beginning has the story flagged, or has 
it gone on rapidly? 

Pupil: I think it has gone on rapidly. 

Teacher: No halt at any place, nothing to retard the story? 

Pupil: No. 

Teacher: What are some of the scenes that stand out in your mind 
through the story? 

Pupil: You mean the one I remember best? 

Teacher: Yes, the one you remember best. 

Pupil: This last scene where Sir Eoderick — 

Teacher: What happened? 

Pupil: Where the men sprang out of the bushes. 

Teacher: One of the most dramatic points in the story. Anything 
more? 

Pupil: The return of Eoderick in the First Canto. 

Teacher: The return of the war boats, the springing of the men from 
the bushes at the whistle; Mr. V., give me another scene. 

Mr. V.: The crazy woman. 

Teacher: All right, what about her? 

Mr. V.: Where Murdock tries to kill Fitz James, — where he is going 
to kill the crazy woman — 

Teacher: Call her Blanche, if you like. What else? 

Pupil: Her song. 

Teacher: Yes; what other scene, one of the best in it, no one has 
spoken of it. 

Pupil: I think the quarrel between Malcolm and Eoderick. 

Teacher: Yes, it isn't very long, is it? 

Pupil: When Douglas refuses to allow Ellen to marry Eoderick. 

Teacher: That is a moment only; I want something a little more 
lengthy, if possible. 

Pupil: Where Ellen first meets the stranger in the boat. 

Teacher: What else, how does the story open? 

Pupil: The hunt. 

Teacher: A good picture of the hunt, wasn't it well told? What 
makes the hunt so interesting, Miss P.? 

Miss P. : So real. 



40 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Where does your interest focus itself? 

Pupil: On the deer. 

Teacher: After that? 

Pupil: On the hunt? 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: On the horses and dogs. 

Teacher: The incident of the hunt, the return of the war boats, the 
whistle of Roderick, the death of Blanche, and so on. Do the incidents 
that happen seem probable, Miss H.? 

Pupil: I do, for that time. 

Teacher: Anything that seems at all forced? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Did they happen in a natural almost necessary way? anyone 
think anything was forced? 

Pupil: I don't think those Highland soldiers were apt to lie in the 
bushes, that way. 

Teacher: What sort of warfare did they have; anyone else? 

Pupil : . 

Pupil: I think it was kind of foolish the way Fitz James said he 
would fight the whole clan. 

Teacher: Does that bring out anything about Fitz James that might 
have been put in purposely? 

Pupil: It was just said for effect; he didn't mean it. 

Teacher: Yes, possibly. 

Pupil: Where Blanche was running around all the time; I don't think 
a crazy woman would be apt to be running around like that. 

Teacher: What had they done to the women and children? 

Pupil: Sent them to this island. 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil : I think it is improbable that she got back her reason. 

Teacher: Isn't it possible? 

Pupil: I think it is improbable that Fitz James swears to avenge her, 
a stranger. 

Teacher: Wait a moment, can anyone defend that? 

Pupil: That was one of the principles of chivalry at that time. 

Pupil: Would he be apt to do it for a mad woman? 

Teacher: Would that be an especial charge to his chivalry? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Pupil: And because of the thing he knew had driven her mad. 

Pupil: Isn't it improbable that Fitz James should not recognize 
Roderick if he was so against him? 

Teacher: Wait one moment — 

Pupil : He had been driven from the court in the time of James ' father. 

Teacher: Yes; what is the verdict, that the incidents are probable 
or not? 

Pupil : Probable. 

Teacher: Who thinks they are? 

Pupil: Some are and some are not. 



A Large Number of Questions 41 

Teacher: We will see; hold your judgment until the end, and see. 
How much is description used in the story, Mr. T.? Is there very much? 

Mr. T.: Quite a little. 

Teacher: For what did it seem to be put in? 

Pupil: I think one place the Canto starts very quietly, and then the 
clan gathered in the fiercest preparation, terrible oaths, shows contrasts. 

Teacher: Is it put in then, just as a scene, or for some distinct 
purpose 1 

Pupil: Distinct purpose. 

Teacher: And in this case it was? 

Pupil : Contrast. 

Teacher: What other descriptions? 

Pupil: INature. 

Teacher: Very much space taken up with descriptions of nature? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Have you a pretty fair idea of the country? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Better from the poem than from pictures, I think. Why, 
Miss P., is as much space given to description and country? 

Miss P.: I think it would be necessary, especially when warfare is 
going on. 

Teacher: Kind of thing that happens depend on country? 

Pupil : Entirely. 

Pupil: Scott was a lover of nature. 

Teacher: For itself? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Do you think the descriptions show a familiarity with the 
country? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: What makes you think so? 

Pupil: The names are correct. 

Teacher: That is true. 

Pupil: He has the location of very small matters that others who are 
not familiar would not have. 

Teacher: Something more? 

Pupil: He seems to know how far it is from one place to another. 

Teacher: Geography. Something more? Superstition used much in 
this story? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Where and how, Miss W.? 

Miss W. : A great deal of prophecy, whether they should go out to 
battle was decided by superstitious means. 

Teacher: Yes, by superstitious means. 

Pupil: And what the result of the battle would be is decided before. 

Teacher: And what else? Some other little touches of superstition? 

Pupil: The cave. 

Teacher: Superstition comes in there; what else? 

Pupil: I think the cross. 



42 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: What about the cross, particularly? 

Pupil: Bolt struck by lightning; sacrifices. 

Teacher: Sacrifices sound almost like- — ? Modern times? 

Pupil: Greek. 

Teacher: Greek and Roman, — back a little farther. 

Pupil: Old Testament. 

Teacher: Yes; where else? 

Pupil: I think a lot of superstition where the sword fell. 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: Allen's prophecy. 

Teacher: Something more? Do you remember Brian's curse? So far 
in the story have we had any hints at all as to the kind of man who 
wrote it, anything that gives you any idea of Scott himself, his likes and 
dislikes? 

Pupil: He liked nature and animals. 

Teacher: What else? 

Pupil: Outdoor sports. 

Teacher: Outdoor sports; what else? 

Pupil: Clan life. 

Teacher: Clan loyalty, all right, what else? What kind of man was 
he? What does he admire in men, in women? 

Pupil : Bravery. 

Teacher: What else? 

Pupil : Fairness. 

Pupil : Chivalry. 

Teacher: What else? 

Pupil : Generosity. 

Teacher: What else, Miss S.? 

Miss S. : Hospitality. 

Pupil : Truth, constancy. 

Pupil: I was going to say beauty. 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: Physical strength; I think bravery in women too, Ellen sitting 
alone in the cave. 

Teacher: Yes, practically alone, save for whom? 

Pupil : Allen. 

Teacher: Who is Allen? 

Pupil: The aged minstrel. 

Teacher: If Scott loved that sort of thing, what sort of man is he? 

Pupil: Good sort of man. 

Teacher: As a whole, what sort of story, then, is it, is it interesting? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: What is it filled with? 

Pupil : Action. 

Teacher: Does Scott love action? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Do you know anything about his life? 

Pupil: He was lame. 



A Large Number of Questions 43 

Teacher : Would he have an exaggerated appreciation, perhaps for 
action ? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Who are his followers, — what people have written stories 
full of action after Scott — can you think of any? 

Pupil: Cooper. 

Teacher: Yes, why is Cooper particularly like Scott? 

Pupil : Scenery. 

Teacher: Is scenery essential? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: What else? 

Pupil: Characters. 

Teacher: Somewhat the same ideals and characters. 

Pupil: Civilization, — the way they kept together. 

Teacher: Bather wild civilization; anyone else as a possible follower? 

Pupil : Stevenson. 

Pupil : Washington Irving. 

Teacher: Washington Irving? 

Pupils : No. 

Pupil : Henty. 

Teacher: Henty? Well, perhaps, yes, in some respects. Whom else? 
A Frenchman maybe you might know. 

Pupil: Dumas? 

Teacher : Yes. 

Next day's lesson Fifth Canto finished, and read the Sixth. I want to 
see if next time you can tell me what particular task Scott set himself 
when he wrote this story, etc. 

Measure the questions and answers in these two lessons by 
either of the accepted standards of English instruction — appre- 
ciation and oral expression — and it is apparent that the lesson 
with the smaller number of questions has the advantage. In 
the matter of oral expression alone, it seems that the children 
in the first lesson were trying throughout to express themselves, 
and sufficient time for that purpose was accorded them. In the 
second lesson there was a steady running fire of questions which 
the pupils merely punctuated with the briefest answers, such 
as : the hunt ; so real ; on the deer ; on the hunt ; on the horses 
and dogs ; I do for that time ; yes ; yes, possibly ; sent to the 
island ; yes ; distinct purpose ; contrast ; nature ; yes ; yes ; en- 
tirely; yes. 

In these two lessons, at least, I believe there is a rather close 
relation between the number of questions and the quality. This 



44 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

relation might not exist, however, in a comparison of other 
lessons. 

The science lesson with eighty-six questions is quoted in 
part on page 79; the science lesson with one hundred and 
twenty-two questions on page 19; the history lesson with forty- 
one, on page 17; that with sixty-six on page 52 and that with 
one hundred and forty-two on page 60. Applying to these 
groups the standards of science and history instruction in par- 
ticular, or standards of class instruction in particular, or stan- 
dards of class instruction generally, I believe we are forced to 
the conclusion that there is considerable room for doubt re- 
garding the relation of the number and the quality of questions ; 
that the number of questions is not an absolute criterion of the 
quality; that the number is not a full measure of the efficiency 
of instruction. Nevertheless, the fact remains that a Large 
Number of Questions (barring modern language and develop- 
mental lessons) is a Valuable Indicator, a Prominent Symp- 
tom, of Bad Instruction. While number is not the full meas- 
ure, it is a very Large Factor in Estimating Efficiency, 
Larger Probably than Any Other Single Factor. 



CHAPTER III 

EFFICIENCY OF INSTRUCTION AS MEASURED BY 
A SMALLER NUMBER OF QUESTIONS 

There are some indications in Chapter II that the lessons with 
the smaller number of questions do not show the improvement 
in efficiency that it would be fair to expect. I believe the study 
of the subject cannot be complete until we have pushed the inves- 
tigation a little further to determine if possible the reasons why 
the smaller number of questions does not contribute to greater 
efficiency in teaching. 

In promoting this inquiry it seems expedient to consider only 
the lessons in Group I (those containing fewer than ninety 
questions) and to measure them first of all by the same standards 
of instruction as were applied in Chapter II, beginning with page 
17. In some instances the analysis of the stenographic reports 
will be more minute in an effort to trace the reasons for lack of 
efficiency. 

I. Applying the measure of nervous tension. 

Needless to say the lessons in Group I do not fall under the 
censure applied to those in Group II. The degree of nervousness 
manifest in the practice of asking from sixty to ninety questions 
is not comparable with a speed of from ninety to one hundred 
and ninety questions in a class period. 

II. Applying the measure of pupil activity. 

It is reasonable to expect that in lessons containing the smaller 
number of questions there will be better reactions by the pupils : 
that if the teacher asks sixty instead of one hundred and sixty 
questions, the answers will be correspondingly more complete 
and the pupils will be given time for thought and for dignified 
expression. We have every reason to believe that pupil activity 
will rank considerably higher for Group I than for Group II. 
The conclusions are shown below : 

45 



46 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

TABLE V 
Showing Pupil Activity in the Lessons of Group I and Group II 
Group I Group II 

Number of Pupil Number of Pupil 

questions activity questions activity 

1 41 25 1 90 41 

2 66 42 2 94 38 

3 69 40 3 125 41 

4 70 30 4 142 20 

5 73 71 5 94 35 

6 74 56 6 129 56 

7 86 24 7 122 20 

8 70 10 8 105 39 



9 165 33 

10 123 33 

11 161 30 

12 196 42 

Average 2>1\ Average 35f 

Estimated in percentages we find the average amount of pupil 
activity reflected by the lessons of Group I to be 37>4 per cent ; 
the average of Group II, 35^3 per cent: the difference is scarcely 
appreciable. From this it is evident that even with the smaller 
number of questions, the teachers still manage somehow to do 
a very large share of the talking during the hour. This fact 
is a severe reflection upon the nature of the teacher's questions, 
for if he cannot stimulate some degree of active participation 
in the work of the hour by prodding his pupils seventy-five 
times, he may well look to the content and the organization of 
his lesson, and to the nature and form of his questions. There 
is something wrong — something that he alone can remedy. Fur- 
thermore, it must be remembered that 37 per cent of pupil activity 
means activity of the pupils collectively — anywhere from twenty 
to fifty pupils — the relative amount per pupil being infinitesimal. 

III. Applying the measure of over-emphasis upon memory 
work. 

Selecting from preceding tables a new grouping to show the 
estimated number of questions that draw for their answers 
directly upon memory of a text-book lesson prepared at home, 
we have a condition that is reflected in Table VI. 

Table VI offers indication of several truths regarding class- 
room practices. In the first place, in the history and English 
lessons there are more memory questions indicated in Group I 
than in Group II. There is, then, no indication that teachers, 



A Smaller Number of Questions 



47 



who by chance or by custom ask fewer than the average number 
of questions, are giving any serious consideration to processes 
of intellectual development. Lesson number two in Group I 
offers illustration in point. When from a total of sixty-six ques- 









TABLE VI 








Showing 


the Number op Memory Questions 


in Group I 








and Group II 










Group I 








Group II 








Total 


Number 






Total 


Number 






number 


of 






number 


of 






of 


memory 






of 


memory 






ques- 


ques- 






ques- 


ques- 






tions 


tions 






tions 


tions 


1. 


History 


. 41 


29 


1. 


History 


. . 90 


75 


2. 


" 


. 66 


60 


2. 


" 


. . 94 


74 


3. 


English 


. 69 


39 


3. 


" 


. . 125 


87 


4. 


" 


70 


26 


4. 


" 


. . 142 


103 


5. 


" 


. . 73 


33 


5. 


English 


. . 94 


26 


6. 


" 


. 74 


61 


6. 


" 


. . 129 


65 


7, 


Science 


86 


58 


7. 


Science 


. . 122 


92 


8. 


Mathematics . . 


. 70 


Develop- 


8. 


Latin 


. . 105 


89 








mental 


9. 


Mathematics 


. . 165 


Develop- 
mental 








lesson 






















lesson 










10. 


Modern 
Language. 


. . 123 


Develop- 
mental 
lesson 










11. 


" 


161 












12. 


" 


196 


196 



tions there are sixty based directly upon repetition of the text- 
book, it is a matter of rather fine discrimination to determine 
what may be the real values of such a piece of work. This 
lesson passes the first test, of comparatively few questions (66) ; 
although it does not rank especially high, it does measure above 
the average in the matter of pupil activity (42 per cent) ; now 
we discover that it falls irretrievably under the third test when 
it confesses that the 42 per cent of pupil activity reflects activity 
in repeating words of the text lesson. 

Lesson number six in Group I measures well in the first test 
(only 74 questions) and also in the second text with pupil activity 
comparatively high (56 per cent). Then when we read in 
Table VI that of the entire seventy-four questions, sixty-one are 
" on the book," we readily see that such activity, while better 
than no active participation by the pupils, is a long way removed 
from the ideal in practice. The teacher's educational aims, his 
own powers of organization, and his methods all stand revealed. 



48 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Lesson number three in Group I gives promise of better things : 
Relatively small number of questions (69) ; pupil activity (40 per 
cent) ; very few memory questions (39), the remaining forty 
questions belonging to the class of questions that stimulate indi- 
vidual reflection. Lesson number five in Group I also stands 
well, with pupil activity the highest in the whole series and 
the memory work reduced to thirty-three questions. In these 
two lessons we may look for something in the way of really 
good questions. They will be referred to somewhat later. 

It is also apparent from Table VI that the figures have a 
certain pertinent relation to subject matter. There seems to be 
higher speed in questioning in the history lessons than in the 
English, and there is more memory work done in history than 
in English. In Group I, the percentage of memory questions in 
history is 83 per cent, English 55 per cent; Group II, history 
75 per cent, English 40 per cent. These deductions have been 
substantiated in the larger number of observations made but not 
stenographically reported. No other subject in the curriculum 
seems to adhere to the text-book so persistently for content, or- 
ganization, and method, as history: no other subject confines 
itself so steadfastly to a struggle with facts. Since history 
instruction seems to embody most of the evils of extreme text- 
book work I will make use of the history reports for quotations 
and for further application of the test of over-emphasis upon 
memory work. Portions of three history lessons are quoted 
below. The first is a seventh grade lesson, which began with 
a review of some facts regarding the origin of the Constitutional 
Government of the United States. The advance lesson — the 
portion quoted — concerned the acts of the President and Congress 
in sending supplies to the earthquake survivors in Sicily. 

Teacher: Just how did Congress go to work to approve what the Presi- 
dent did ? 

Pupil: They wrote a document — 

Teacher: What do they call that document? 

Pupil: A bill. 

Teacher: Irving? 

Irving: They wrote down that a certain amount of money was to be 
sent to the sufferers in Sicily, and then the President — 

Teacher: Now wait a moment; let us suppose— how many parts are 
there to Congress? 

Pupil : Two. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 49 

Teacher: What are they? 

Pupil.: House of Eepresentatives and the Senate. 

Teacher: Now, you say that they had a bill, we will say in the House. 
Do you know how much they aslced for? 

Pupil : Two-thirds. 

Teacher: Row much money? 

Pupil: $300,000. 

Pupil : $500,000. 

Teacher: Well, it was $800,000 to be correct; in the House they wrote 
that in the bill, to give it to the Italian sufferers. What was done after 
they had read that? 

Pupil: There was a vote in the House, and there it came out that 
two-thirds were for it; everyone signed his name, and it went to the 
Senate, and if there were two-thirds in the Senate it became a law. 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: Miss A. what would happen if the House of Eepresentatives 
got two-thirds for it, and the Senate two-thirds against it, and the 
President — 

Teacher: It has to go before both houses; when the House wants to 
get something done in the Senate, and the Senate is against it, they 
have to talk to them and try to persuade them. Where did you find two- 
thirds? 

Pupil: I didn't find that at all, Arthur said it. 

Teacher: Where did you find that, Arthur? 

Arthur: It said in the Constitution two-thirds had to vote. 

Teacher: Look that up again. 

Pupil: Two-thirds of all persons present. 

Teacher: That was the way it should have been. The fact was that 
the President sent his message to Congress Monday morning. Why did 
he wait until Monday? 

Pupil: Congress was not back yet, just got back Monday. 

Teacher: He asked Congress to pass this law, and they were undecided 
how much they wanted to give, so it was felt they ought to wait, and the 
next day Congress signed the bill sent to them. We have been talking 
about Congress, what is Congress made up of? 

Pupil: The House of Eepresentatives and the Senate. 

Teacher: Yes; and the name of the men who are in the Senate? 

Pupil : Senators. 

Teacher: What are the men in the House called? 

Pupil : Eepresentatives. 

Teacher: What is another word you hear them called? 

Pupil: Eepresentatives to Congress. 

Teacher: They were called Congressmen; how many have heard that 
word? 

(Hands.) 

Teacher: Arthur, did you find that clause in the book? 

Arthur (reading): "Every bill which shall have passed the House 
of Eepresentatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be 



50 The Question as a Measure of bjficiency in Instruction 

presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall 
sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to the House in 
which it shall have originated." 

Teacher: Does it say that it has to pass two-thirds? 

Arthur: I was just coming to it, if it goes back it has to be two-thirds. 

Teacher: The first time it has to be a majority vote. How many 
found out how many men there are from New York State in this Congress? 

Pupil : In the House of Kepresentatives, New York can send six. 

(Hands!) 

Teacher: There seems to be a disagreement. John? 

Pupil: New York can send two to the Senate and two to the House 
of Eepresentatives. 

(Hands!) 

Teacher: Still seems to be a disagreement. 

Pupil: In the House of Eepresentatives New York six, and Ehode 
Island two. 

(Hands!) 

Teacher: Where do you find that? 

Pupil: That was in 1789. 

Teacher: It isn't the same now? 

Pupil : No. 

Teacher: Irving? 

Irving: New York thirty-seven to the House of Eepresentatives and 
two to the Senate. 

Teacher: You said in 1789 they sent to the Senate? 

Pupil: Six from New York and one from Ehode Island. 

Teacher: Listen. To the Senate in 1789 New York sent how many? 

Pupil : Two. 

Teacher: And Ehode Island? 

Pupil : One. 

(Hands!) 

Teacher: To the Senate? 

Pupil: Two from New York. 

Teacher: In 1909 how many does New York send to the Senate? 

Pupil : Thirty-seven. 

Teacher: To the Senate, where did you find your facts? 

Pupil: Irving said it. 

Teacher: Irving, what did you say? 

Irving: I said New York two to the Senate. 

Teacher: And Ehode Island how many to the Senate? 

Pupil : Two. 

Teacher: That was away back in 1789; in 1901 how many lias New 
York in the Senate? 

Pupil : Two. 

Teacher: And Ehode Island? 

Pupil : Two. 

Teacher: Then that hasn't changed? 

Pupil: In the Constitution it said only two. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 51 

Teacher: Loolc that up in the Constitution after class. 

Pupil: To the House of Eepresentatives they sent as many as counted 
on the population, I think one man to every 30,000. 

Teacher: Now we will tallc about the House. What did you find, 
Claude? 

Claude: Any city can send — 

Teacher: Answer my question. How many in New Yorlc? 

Claude : Six — thirty-seven. 

Teacher: Thirty-seven in the House. How many in Bhode Island? 

Pupil: Three, I think. 

Teacher : Margaret ? 

Pupil: Two. 

Teacher: What is this about six, Margaret? 

Margaret: When it was — many years ago — 

Teacher: I don't hear. 

Margaret: A great many years ago they used to only send six. 

Teacher: A great many years ago they sent six; where did you get 
that? 

Margaret: Here in the Constitution. 

Teacher: And what does that mean? 

Margaret: Whenever they grew bigger — 

Teacher: Answer this question: 

Pupil : 1789. 

Teacher: In 1789 they could send six. My question yesterday was, 
"In 1909 how many can you have in New York?" 

Pupil: I looked and I couldn't find it. 

Teacher: You found it where, Irving? 

Pupil: I found it in the almanac. 

Teacher: I said that you could find this question in two places. 

Pupil: I found it in an almanac which said for the House of Repre- 
sentatives — it had six men down — it said 1907 — 

Teacher: Bring that to me, I want to see it. Carlton, you said some- 
thing about 195,000 men, what was it? 

Carlton: Every state sent one man to every 30,000. 

Teacher: Where did you find that? 

Carlton: In the Constitution. 

Teacher: That is, they were going to divide the United States into 
districts with 30,000 in each one. 

Pupil: No, 30,000 of the population in each state, they could send 
one man. 
' Teacher: When? 

Pupil: In 1789. 

Teacher: Then? 

Pupil: I thought it was 800,000. 

Teacher: You look that up. 

Pupil: Why did they change and send 37 to the House? 



5 2 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: I was wondering why someone didn't ask that. They started 
with six and ended with thirty-seven. 

Pupil: The population has increased and the number of men would 
increase, it would get up to thirty-seven. 

Teacher: Let me see, in New York State there are about 7,000,000 
people; according to the Constitution at first we were going to have one 
man for every 30,000; how many in New York? 

Pupil: 2,000. 

Teacher: And other states 1,000. Why wouldn't that be a good 
thing, to have 200 from this state and 100 from another— 

Pupil: They would get — 

Teacher: How often do they take a new census? 

Pupil: Every ten years. 

Teacher: What year do you happen to know? 

Pupil: 1900, and the next year 1910, and 1920, — every ten years. 

Teacher: And then they keep enlarging it, until for every 195,000 
they have a representative. Can you say about how many representatives 
we have in New York state? How great a population have we? 

Pupil: 4,000,000. 

Teacher: Take these down and tell me to-morrow how many we have 
for New York State alone. 

Pupil: Why could Ehode Island only send two representatives? 

Teacher: Answer that, Herbert. 

Herbert: Because the population has not increased enough. 

Teacher: So they can have only about two representatives. I am 
going to ask this question for you to think over and tell me to-morrow: 
You said tliat no matter how large a state was, whether large or small, 
whether it had one thousand or millions in it, each state could have two 
men in the Senate, but it is according to the population in the House. 
Which do you think is the fairest, the fairer way, if you could have just 
one? To-morrow we have no lesson to prepare for history, I will ask you 
just to think over this question. 

The next quotation is from the lesson of a second-year high 
school class in first-year history. In the preceding two-thirds of 
the lesson there had been questions upon Themistocles, Aristides, 
the formation of the Delian League, and some comparison of 
Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues. Here they begin considera- 
tion of Cimon's place in history. 

Teacher: Who brought about the changes? 

Pupil : Cimon. 

Teacher: What did he do? 

Pupil: After awhile he thought they had too much freedom because 
some of those islands, like Naxos, wanted to be free; they didn't want 
to be under this League and he thought the best thing to do was to 
make them pay a tribute, and not have so much to say in the government, 



A Smaller Number of Questions 53 

and he reduced them too, just as if Athens were the king and they were 
all the subjects. 

Teacher : Exactly. 

Pupil: Cimon was more of an aristocrat; when he went to walk in 
the streets he always had two servants with him, and they always had 
a lot of money to give to the poor people — 

Teacher: TJiat looked as if he were fond of the people, didn't it? 
What were Cimon' s chief characteristics? I think if you will look it over 
you will find that he was—? 

Pupil: He was very patriotic. 

Teacher: Not only patriotic, but Cimon was a perfectly splendid 
soldier; who was his father? 

Pupil : Miltiades. 

Teacher: And he had inherited his father's interests, he had the ideas 
of discipline which a splendid general will have, — that all must obey. His 
ideas were liberal and generous enough, but when he considered Naxos' 
disobedience,— " If you do not obey, you must be punished." He thor- 
oughly sympathised with Sparta in some of her training. The Spartans 
had a great partiality for Cimon. After Aristides' death— and we do not 
know just how he died— Cimon had command of this League, and what 
did you find to be the characteristics of this party, — your League is going 
to be what—? 

Pupil : General. 

Teacher: And come out like — ? 

Pupil: An empire. 

Teacher: In fact, we have been seeing how it was that Themistocles 
gave the basis for Athens' power, how Athens developed it gradually, then 
Cimon comes and changes the organisation. Let us go back to Cimon. 
What was Cimon 's real aim when he first started it? 

Raymond: Cimon, when he started out, was first of all — 

Teacher : What work is he going to complete? 

Pupil: The work of — 

Teacher: Let us look at our map — 

Pupil: — the work of reorganizing the Aegean cities. 

Teacher: How far does he accomplish it? 

Pupil: He does it, then went down to the southern part of the Medi- 
terranean. (Goes to map.) 

Teacher: He goes up here (indicating), starts out and makes up his 
mind he is going to complete Aristides' work, goes up toward Thrace, and 
gets those cities under control; he has made up his mind that everybody 
must join the League, and that he would go in search of the Persian fleet, 
and see what was left, and what happened, Edward? 

Edward: He defeated them in a battle near the River Eurymedon. 

Teacher: Can you point that out? 

Pupil: (Goes to map.) 

Teacher: What are you going to call that river? 

Pupil : Euri — 



54 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Can you write it? 

Pupil: (writes) E-r — 

Teacher: Anyone spell it all? 
j v-*^ (writes) E-u-r-y-m-e-d-o-n. 

Teacher: What sort of a battle was that? 

Pupil: Entirely naval, — it didn't tell us in the book — 

Teacher: Would you like to hear more about it? 

Pupil: I read all about it. 

Teacher: If you have, suppose you tell us; that will save a great 
deal of time. 

Pupil: In this battle Cimon and his people had a much smaller naval 
power than the Persians, and didn't think they could win, but came upon 
the Persians unexpectedly and trampled over them, and lots of Persians 
were killed, and hardly any of the Ionians, and they conquered them, 
and right after this battle Persian troops were on shore, and some of 
them would have liked very much to go fight them, but his soldiers were 
all tired, and it was a very hard fight with Persia because Persia was a 
large force, but the soldiers were so anxious to kill as many of the 
Persians as they could, he let them go, and they went on and Persia fought 
well, and the Ionians won, but lots of the great soldiers of Athens were 
killed in this war, and there were more Athenians killed in that war than 
in any other, and also a great number of Persians killed. Cimon, after 
having that victory, had freed cities around there, and the Persians thought 
it was such a great loss — he made the Persians promise not to come 
within a certain point of the coast of Greece, — 

Teacher: You wouldn't Icnoiv that island mentioned there, you haven't 
had it,— they would stay out of the Aegean sea. 

Pupil: They said the Persians didn't even come near that island. 

Teacher: That was a complete victory? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Bo you know how the Athenians commemorated that vic- 
tory? The way they commemorated their victories? 

Pupil: Didn't they put up statues on the tops of buildings? 

Pupil: By the Olympian games. 

Teacher: What they did was to build a very beautiful temple which 
you will know more about next week,— and they put the Temple of the 
Winged Victory right on that corner. You know a good many of the 
statues do you? the one with the wings? Victory, when she received the 
word, ivould fly home to tell the good news. Now it wouldn't be necessary 
for Victory to have wings any longer, they had completed their conquests, 
and they considered that it was to be no longer necessary for Victory to 

have wings, and that little temple of the was the one of the 

Wingless Victory. 

Cimon did a great many other things after that. We shall not have 
time now to talk of that. I want you in your advance work to try and 
keep this in mind — What it was that Themistocles did toward the building 
up of the Athenian greatness, wliat it was that Aristides did. And I have 



A Smaller Number of Questions 55 

a question for next time: Do you think Themistocles could have formed 
the Delian League; what Cimon did, and how he obtained a strong hold 
and strong command, and then give your reasons for the downfall of 
Qimon,—Wliat was it, by the way? 

Pupil: Help to Sparta. 

Teacher: And then who was it came into command? 

Pupil : Pericles. 

Teacher: There was one man in between — 

.Pupil : Por — 

Teacher : Ephialtes. 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: And Ephialtes was assassinated, and then Pericles came into 
power. Now, in your advance lesson, I want you to review what each man 
did toward the rebuilding of Athens' power, and work in your text-book 
pages 217-223. / ivant you to do some careful map-work, and be able to 
tell me about the different districts that belong to Athens, how great 
her power was. 

This third selection is from a second-year high school lesson 
in second-year history. The lesson had followed closely the 
struggles of the Carolingians for supremacy in Western Europe. 
I quote the portion treating of the coming of the Mohammedans. 

Teacher: Who were they (the Mohammedans); what do you know 
about them? 

Pupil: They were a baud founded by Mohammed, who was the man 
from Mecca farther in the East; and he founded a new religion called 
the Mohammedan religion; and he said it was glory to die in battle and 
thought that anyone who died by the sword would be greater than any- 
one else and would probably go to the heaven that they imagined. The 
Mohammedans were very zealous and they conquered a great deal of the 
land around the Mediterranean Sea and on the Eastern border of the 
Mediterranean; and they tried to conquer the Roman Empire in the west. 

Teacher: Would you say "Roman" ? 

Pupil: It was more a German Empire. 

Teacher: Did they really try to conquer Borne; did they approach 
the city? 

Pupil: No. "When they invaded the Western World, the western part 
of the Eoman Empire, it was thought at the time that they would prob- 
ably conquer it, but Charles Martel with his soldiers, the German soldiers, 
came and defeated them. 

Teacher: Defeated whom? 

Pupil: The Mohammedans. 

Teacher: Did they defeat Mohammed? 

Pupil: No, because he was not in the battle. 

Teacher: Where was he? 

Pupil: He was dead. 



56 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Mohammed has passed away but his followers are still con- 
quering in his name. 

Pupil: After that the Mohammedans did not have as much power 
as before. They tried to invade other countries. 

Teacher: Does any girl know anything about this man Mohammed? 

Pupil: He was an Arabian; he was born at Mecca. 

Teacher: Come and find Mecca on the map. (Pupil indicated.) Yes; 
down there on the west coast of Arabia— a little lower down than you 
pointed. An Arabian who became possessed with the idea of founding a 
new religion, a merchant himself, the husband of a woman who ivas inter- 
ested in merchandise and in caravans; and he traveled far and near as 
a merchant would, up and down the coast of the Mediterranean perhaps 
and the Bed Sea. And there he became very much impressed with the 
idea of one God. Perhaps he learned it from the Jews, bcause the Arabians 
did not really believe in one God. Their religion was a polytheistic system, 
attempting to explain some of the mysteries of Nature. But in some way 
he became impressed with the idea of one God, the same as the Jews under- 
stood when they said Jehovah. And he became so impressed with that, 
that he began to teach that idea to his family. Perhaps his wife was his 
first convert. We are not quite sure. But anyway in the course of time 
lie had a few followers; and after his death many people flocked to this 
belief and became convinced that there was some truth in it at least. Then 
they soon came to conquer in the name of what? 

Pupil: In the name of Mohammed. 

Teacher: In the name of his teachings: in the name of their religion. 
Probably love of plunder had something to do with it and the love of 
gain; but that was at the base of it all the time — conquering in the name 
of this new religion called Mohammedanism, they soon entered most of 
the cities along the northern coast of Africa, and made their way into the 
Strait of Gibraltar. This talces me five minutes to tell. How long do you 
think it took them to do this? 

Pupil: A century or two. 

Teacher: We pass quickly over these periods. You girls might get 
confused and think this happened in a few years. Mohammed was dead 
a long time before they attempted to cross into Europe. Now where did 
they attempt to cross into Europe? 

Pupil: The Strait of Gibraltar. 

Teacher: What people would they have to conquer in Southern Spain 
before they could go very far? 

Pupil: The Visigoths. 

Teacher: You remember some days ago we talked about the Visigothic 
State, the first German state to be carved out of these chaotic states. 
Later this German state was attacked on the South by whom? 

Pupil: By the Saracens. 

Teacher : We have come to them at last ; these followers of Mohammed. 
They had already been attacked on the North by whom? 

Pupil: The Franks. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 57 

Teacher: The Visigothic State going to pieces, as it were, under the 
attacks of the Franks from the North and the Saracens from the South. 
They slowly pushed their way, these Saracens, up through Spain into 
France, threatening Christendom. If they could spread their religion over 
Europe what other religion must give place to it? 

Pupil : Christianity. 

Teacher: There must have been great concern among the Christians 
when they realised what was coming, what the dangers were. Who was 
strong enough to turn them off? 

Pupil: Charles Martel. 

Teacher: The Franlcish soldiers you might say. Where was that great 
and decisive battle fought when he succeeded in turning bad: the Moham- 
medans and probably saving Europe? 

Pupil : Poitiers. 

Teacher: Sometimes called the Battle of Tours. Where is it? (Pupil 
indicates on map.) You might say Southern France near the center. Can 
you tell me why we look upon the battle of Poitiers as one of the great 
decisive battles of the world, why we should remember it? 

Pupil: At the battle of Poitiers Charles Martel defeated the Sara- 
cens, the Mohammedans; and only for his defeat of them the religion 
of the Germans would have been changed from Christian to Mohammedan 
because they were very strong, and they would have forced their religion 
upon the Eomans and the Christians, but since Charles Martel defeated 
them Christianity was spared and the people remained just the way they 
had been before. 

Teacher: That is pretty strong. People never remain just as they 
had been before. Christianity was saved and probably we may say Europe 
was saved from Mohammedanism. Now, was that something to be desired, 
that Europe should be saved from Mohammedanism? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: Why do you say that? Mohammed taught the belief in 
one God; he taught many good things. By the way, what was the Bible 
called by the Mohammedans? 

Pupil: The Koran. 

Teacher: It is full of fine teachings, many of them as fine as you 
can find in the Bible. Why do we say it was a good thing for the world? 

Pupil: The greater part of them were plunderers and ravaged. 

Teacher: So did the Germans. Go on with your answer, Miss A. 

Pupil: They thought it was a glory to be killed, it was considered 
good to be killed in battle and this was carried to such an extent that it 
became cruel — 

Teacher: Do you think the Germans were very mild or gentle? Why 
do we think this battle of Poitiers was such a great benefit; why was the 
saving of Christianity to the world better than if it had been converted 
to Mohammedanism? 

Pupil: Christianity teaches that no blood should be shed; but Mo- 
hammed taught that it is well that you should die by the sword in battle. 



58 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: One of the ideals of Christianity was finer than the ideals 
of the Mohammedans. In this respect that might be. We are getting at 
it, I think. Miss F., another reason. 

Miss F. : The Mohammedans were not as civilized as the Christians 
were. 

Teacher: I do not lenow about that. If you look into them, they 
had better schools than the Christians had at that time. It is said there 
were better schools among the Mohammedans,— science was more advanced 
among the Mohammedans. What do you say? 

Pupil: We can take those countries to-day, and we can see they are 
not nearly as civilized as we are"; and if they had substituted their religion, 
likely Europe would be just the same. 

Teacher: Where do we find those people to-day? 

Pupil: Arabia. 

Teacher: Their civilization to-day we think is far inferior to ours. 
Now when you compare the civilization that has developed under the teach- 
ings of Mohammed with the civilization that has developed under the teach- 
ings of Christianity, which do we think is very much better? 

Class : Christianity. 

Teacher: When the two are measured side by side we feel that the 
ideals of the Christians were finer than the ideals taught by the Mohamme- 
dans; and the two civilizations of to-day are the very best proof that we 
have. I think that is the way to get at that. Who was the greatest of 
all the Carolingians? 

Pupil: Charles the Great. 

Teacher: Describe him. 

In these selections there is representative work in history 
instruction. That the lessons differ materially as we apply to 
them different standards is apparent in a casual reading, but they 
are typical of the kind of history recitation that may be observed 
in thousands of class rooms. Such text-book work is paralleled 
in other subjects in which the book is rigidly followed, but in 
most other subjects there are some extenuating circumstances, 
such as an occasional laboratory period or some incidental black- 
board work. In history the evils of book work, hence verbal 
memory work, seem most pronounced. There is very little 
reflection called for in the questions quoted in the three lessons, 
and whether the lesson reflects many questions or few, their 
nature is invariable — a memory question of a previously pre- 
pared lesson. In connection with the study of history it is 
interesting to read the aim for the teaching of history as found 
in the Report of the Committee of Seven. This report sets the 
following standards for history instruction : it trains for citizen- 
ship; it cultivates judgment; " it is a great instrument for devel- 



A Smaller Number of Questions 59 

oping in the pupil capacity for seeing underlying reasons and 
for comprehending motives'; it "develops capacity for effective 
work, not capacity for absorption alone" ; it helps to develop "the 
scientific habit of mind " ; it helps to inspire a pupil " with a 
love of reading which will prove a priceless treasure to him." 1 
How are some, or any, of these aims for the study of history, 
or similar ideals for the study of any subject whatever, to be 
realized by the current practices of spending all the time avail- 
able on hearing the text? 

If you ask teachers of history why they are teaching it, the 
most customary answer is that " history develops judgment." In 
the hundreds of class rooms where I have made observations 
of the questioning, I have found very few questions so framed 
by teachers of history that they called for any individual judg- 
ments. Psychology teaches us that the only way to train the 
ability to form historical judgments is through exercise. I have 
found such questions as this : " Was the king right in imposing 
the stamp tax upon the colonists ? " This sounds like the appeal 
for a possible judgment by the pupils, but it cannot be a real 
judgment when the pages of all the texts distinctly reveal marked 
censure of the king. " In what respect would you call the War 
of 1812 a second War of Independence? " appears to be a ques- 
tion involving the pupil's judgment ; but when the text-book 
lesson prepared at home contained the sentence, " The War of 
1812 has been often and truly called the Second War of Inde- 
pendence, which should be understood to mean not merely inde- 
pendence of other nations, but of the conditions of colonial life," 
the answer was obviously colored by the author's statement, and 
hence it could not be a judgment of the pupil. 

It seems a paradox to say that there are times when a judg- 
ment question is not a judgment question, but if we attempt to 
analyze so-called judgment questions in history we can find many 
illustrations to corroborate the statement. 

Analysis of the six stenographic lesson reports on history 
reveals the fact that, by classifying as a judgment question every 
one that could possibly involve the element of judgment, the 
highest attainment is twenty-eight in a total of one hundred and 
twenty-five, and twenty-nine in a total of one hundred and five, 

1 The Study of History in Schools. Report of the Committee of Seven, 
1004. 



60 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

while the lowest record was three in sixty. The following ques- 
tions from the first mentioned lesson show something of the type 
of judgment questions used : 

Teacher: The end of to-day's lesson says that certain of the achieve- 
ments of the Greeks during the period that is treated in the chapter show 
the sterling qualities of the Greek mind. What does sterling mean? 

Pupil: The very finest. 

Teacher: Any other answer? 

Pupil: Good qualities. 

Teacher: That is rather general. 

Pupil: Best qualities. 

Pupil: Next to the best. 

Teacher: Next to the best? When you think of "sterling" silver 
as the best? 

Pupil: Gold is better than silver. 

Teacher: Sterling silver is the best of its kind, isn't it? Any other 
explanation of sterling? 

Pupil : Thorough. 

Then follow twenty-four memory questions based upon the 
text, after which there is a return to the judgment questions in 
line with the above. 

Teacher: Now, what do you think sterling qualities of mind means 
here? 

Pupil: That they had high ideals; they were true to them and were 
great. 

Teacher: A better answer still. What do we mean by "sterling quali- 
ties of mind"? 

Pupil: The very highest. They could not be influenced by any other 
people's ideas. 

Teacher: They were, I think. 

Pupil: I think the people cared to love the best of everything. I 
think these qualities were at the highest point; they never reached such 
a refined state before, and everything was the best of its kind. 

Teacher: Any other answer? 

Pupil: The strongest qualities. 

Pupil: They looked for beauty in everything. 

Later in the lesson we find : 

Teacher: Do you suppose it takes more thought to write prose than 
to write poetry? (Some pupils reply "yes" and some "no.") 

Teacher: That would be an interesting question to debate, wouldn't 
it? They were beginning to think more. What is thinking? 

Pupil : Eeasoning. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 61 

Teacher: Sometimes it is a little different from reasoning; you just 
sit down and remember things that have happened. And how would 
you describe that"? 

Pupil : Eeflection. 

Teacher: That is just right. They were coming to reflect upon things; 
and what was another thing that went with that? As you reflect upon 
what you have done and upon what you are going to do and upon what 
your neighbors are doing, and what you think they ought to do, you 
grow wise. But what is preliminary to that? 

Pupil: You grow mature. 

Teacher: Yes, more mature; that is good. 

Pupil: More critical. 

Teacher: That is just the right word. 

Nine memory questions follow, and then: 

Teacher: Herodotus listened to all these tales that were told him. 
Did they make scientific history, do you think? 

Pupil: Yes. 

Teacher: Would that be accurate, to put down everything that every- 
body told you? What was the difference between Herodotus and Thueyd- 
ides; was the man himself upright; did he keep strictly to what he knew 
was truo? 

Pupil: He loved the truth. 

Teacher: Is that a good quality in historians? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: I think it is one of the very finest cures for gossip, because 
if once you learn to criticize — this is the critical age, isn't it? If you 
once learn to criticize the statements that people make, you won't believe 
everything that is told you by the neighbors. Herodotus believed every- 
thing, wrote it all down. Thucydides did not write down everything 
because he wanted the truth. What was the difference between Thucydides 
and Xenophon? 

The last question called for comparison of facts as also another 
upon the same topic. " Which do you think had the more mili- 
tary subject, Thucydides or Xenophon?" The remaining judg- 
ment questions call for incidental opinions, and are scattered. 

Thus at intervals throughout a lesson that was interesting in 
many ways the pupils were thrown upon their own resources 
and encouraged to exercise their individual powers of discrim- 
ination. It will be noticed, however, that the judgments were 
largely upon choice of words with reference to historical inter- 
pretation. Removing many of the quoted questions from the 
history setting, one might as easily believe that they were taken 
from an English lesson. 



62 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Unfortunately, I am not able to find in the six history manu- 
scripts before me many questions involving judgments that are 
more strictly historical, unless we except a few such as the 
following : 

Was that something to be desired that Europe should be saved from 
Mohammedanism % 

Why was the saving of Christianity to the world better than if it had 
been converted to Mohammedanism ? 

Do you think that Congress's treatment of Arnold in reference to 
those charges was justified? 

What feature of Arnold's treason do you consider was most repre- 
hensible, most open to criticism? 

What might be interpreted as a flag of truce? 

Do you think Aristides really meant it (The Delian League) should 
be a fair distribution of power? 

If we cannot find in a fair range of practice any indication 
of historical judgments, the deduction is obvious that there is a 
significant discrepancy between the Judgment aim and the 
Memory practice in the teaching of history. 

Returning to Table VI we find indications that English lessons 
are not as slavishly committed to the use of memory questions 
as history lessons. The type of question that calls for reflection 
seems to have a distinct place in English work, and many of 
the memory questions are of the associative type rather than the 
purely verbal. To illustrate this fact, I will quote at some 
length from a stenographic lesson on Tennyson's Elaine (third- 
year English). Leading up to the contrast in character of the 
Queen and Elaine we find the following questions and answers : 

Teacher: How about that point? 

Pupil: The queen never told him to stay at home, but he happened 
to look at her and catch her eye, and he thought she didn't want him 
to go and fight, but she told him she did want him to go. 

Teacher: For what reason? 

Pupil : Because there had been so much rumor in the court about his 
love for the queen, and she thought Arthur had some suspicions himself. 

Teacher: Were her reasons for wanting him to go high or low? 

Pupil : Low. 

Teacher: A mere fear of gossip; that brings us to the question of 
the queen's character; all the way through what sort of a woman does 
she show herself to be? 

Pupil: I don't think she was at all an honest woman, — very deceitful, 
very faithless, she really had no love for the king, and she loved Launcelot, 
— I don't see why she married the king, — unless to be queen. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 63 

Teacher: Evidently she is faithless to him now; how does her mind 
work, along just and noble lines or not? 

Pupil : No. 

Teacher: Does that come out in any other way? 

Pupil: After, when she is jealous of Elaine. 

Teacher: When she hears the news of the tournament, do you remem- 
ber how she takes it? 

Pupil: She goes to her room and throws diamonds in the river. 

Teacher: The thing that hurts her most is what? 

Pupil: He wore Elaine's emblem. 

Teacher: If she really loved Launcelot herself, what would have hurt 
her most? 

Pupil: That he had been wounded. 

Teacher: And probably unto death; how does Elaine think of it? 

Pupil: Thinks only of him. 

Teacher: The difference between the two. In comparing Elaine with 
the queen, is there any other contrast? 

Pupil: Elaine is very simple, and the queen is — Elaine is not worldly- 
wise, is very innocent. 

Teacher: That comes out in what ways? 

Pupil: She doesn't know what love is; she had never been outside 
the castle; and she doesn't try to hide her love, and the queen tries to 
do all she can to hide it. 

Pupil: I don't think that is particularly against her, for she had 
to hide it. 

Teacher: That is true, and yet would Elaine have had the skill to 
hide her love whatever the situation was? Elaine was open and frank 
and above-board. Is there any man in the poem who is like that? 

Pupil: The king; there is a man like the queen, too. 

Teacher: Who is that? 

Pupil: The man who goes on the quest. 

Teacher: What is his name? 

Pupil : Gawain. 

Teacher: He shows what? 

Pupil: He is worldly-wise and polite, pleasing to see, but he is false, 
untrue to the king. 

Teacher: His lack of truth comes out. 

Pupil: Doesn't do what the king sends him to do. 

Teacher: What else does he do that seems underhand, or not quite 
honorable? 

Pupil: He gives the diamond to Elaine to give to Launcelot, and 
goes back and says he cannot find him. 

Pupil: Didn't ask to see the shield, and makes love to Elaine. 

Teacher : All the way through he is really not upright and true. Come 
back for a moment to Elaine, and her innocence and simplicity; how do 
other people treat Elaine? 

Pupil: Her father and brothers regard her as little girl, give her 



64 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

very much her own way; they call her wilful, but I don't think she is, I 
didn't see it in her actions. 

Teacher: In what other ways did they treat her as a child? 

Pupil: In giving her the diamond, they thought it ought not to be 
given to her but to the queen. 

Teacher: What else did they do that makes her feel uncomfortable 
when Launcelot first comes? 

Pupil: They talk about her in her presence with strangers. 

Teacher: The very point of being talked over in the presence of 
strangers is embarrassing to a girl who is old enough to feel that she 
isn't any longer a child. There are other little points that show that 
in the eyes of her family she was a little girl. So far as we have con- 
sidered it, you see this poem is a composition of contrasted characters, 
a simple, frank, childlike girl is contrasted with a worldly-wise scheming 
woman, the queen. This courtly, gentlemanly, but not altogether honest 
and straightforward Gawain is contrasted with the simple and manly 
Arthur. 

The next time, in finishing this poem, consider Launcelot, whether he 
is an out and out scoundrel, or whether he is noble and manly at heart, 
etc., etc. 

The field of English is rich in opportunities for judgment ques- 
tions. It has often seemed to me, as I followed one class after 
another through a day's activities, that the English hour is the 
only one during the school day when pupils are ever allowed to 
have any ideas or judgments of their own. The English lesson 
is frequently an oasis of thought activity in a desert of fact. This 
may be due to the fact that English instruction has been eman- 
cipated in a sense from the thraldom of bookishness that still 
grips history instruction. Pupils in English are no longer com- 
pelled to study a book telling about every masterpiece in the 
English language : instead, they are expected to know intimately 
a very few good things — and in the process of knowing them 
other forms of intellectual activity besides verbal memory are 
called into exercise. Such freedom would be just as possible for 
history instruction, if the makers of texts and of courses of study 
would get away from that stupendous sequence of political events 
from 4000 B. C. to the present, and see the truly educative 
importance of living for a time with a few big human events. 

IV. Applying the measure of oral expression. 

Oral expression does not show the improvement it would be 
natural to expect from the lesser number of questions. There 
is everywhere too much talking done by the teacher to permit of 



A Smaller Number of Questions 65 

much oral expression from the pupils: and in many subjects there 
is too close adherence to the repetition of text to permit of any 
degree of freedom or originality in expression. 

We have been taught to believe that English lessons illustrate 
the highest standards available in amount, freedom, and quality 
of oral expression. Teachers of history and science and mathe- 
matics are everywhere urged to give thought to the oral expression 
of their pupils, but they are never held to quite the same standards 
of attainment as those set for the English teachers. The con- 
clusions that have been forced upon me in the series of studies 
here recorded are substantially that in the matter of freedom of 
expression, correct diction, and distinct enunciation, lessons in 
English, on the whole, show little improvement in practice over 
other subjects. 

The aim that is most apparent in English lessons is the " ap- 
preciation " aim. It seems to be a well-established ideal in Eng- 
lish instruction, showing results, in most of the classes under 
observation, that are most gratifying. The form and the fullness 
of expression, however, seem not to be factors of any consider- 
able importance. " Give me the thought, Mary : never mind 
the words : now listen while / word it for you " — this is the spirit 
— though not in so many words — that finds reflection in many 
class rooms. It is part of the mistaken conception of education 
that it is possible to teach children to be self-reliant by doing 
things for them. 

Sometimes the failure to elicit good expression is due to the 
fact that teachers have adopted the lawyers' practice of embody- 
ing in the phraseology of their questions the substance of the 
subject under discussion, allowing the pupils to merely punctuate 
the story now and then with monosyllabic answers. Where such 
practices exist, it makes only slight difference to the cause of 
instruction whether there are two hundred questions or one 
hundred. 

Sometimes the failure to elicit good expression is due to the 
fact that while teachers may ask fairly good questions, they are 
satisfied with insufficient answers. They are content to pick a 
portion of an answer here, and a portion there, without requiring 
pupils to collect and round out these tidbits into a completed 
thought. Pupils soon learn when a teacher is satisfied with 
fragmentary answers. 



66 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

This form of answer secured by picking here and there, makes 
a composite affair that may contribute to the uses of instruction 
or to its abuses, accordingly as it is treated. The exigencies of 
instruction demand for the " composite " answer a somewhat 
definite place in instruction because it is by means of accretions 
of fact here, and suggestion there, and hint from another source, 
that our knowledge of a subject is augmented. The composite 
answer may be used in purposeful ways ; its abuse lies in allowing 
it to foster guessing processes and shiftless habits of thought. By 
way of illustration, I will quote a few paragraphs from the lesson 
comparing the old and the new ballads : 

' ' Let us see about the spirit in which they were written, that is, the kind 
of qualities the people in those ballads showed, and the kind of qualities 
in human nature people of that day liked." 

Pupil: I think bravery. 

Teacher {writing bravery): Anything else? BRAVERY. 

Pupil: A hero and a villain. 

Teacher: Hero and villain; in other words, you take sides? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: What other qualities besides bravery? 

Pupil: Treachery, of the king, in the ballad of Johnie Armstrong. 

Teacher: Yes, and the hero shows what quality? 

Pupil: He believes in the king even when he is summoned before him. 

Teacher : Good faith on one side, and treachery on the other. Anything 
else? 

Pupil: Honor. 

Teacher: Honor, yes. {Writes honor.) HONOR. 

Pupil: A great deal of honor among themselves. 

Teacher: Loyalty to each other; and as regards their enemies, what? 

LOYALTY. 

Pupil : They used to fight for fun, and they had certain rules ; they 
were not really angry, they had to keep certain rules. 

Teacher: In other words? 

Pupil: They couldn't do just as they wanted to. 

Teacher: There were rules of honor even toward your enemy, a 
sort of amateur spirit. 

Pupil: Courtesy to their enemies? COURTESY. 

Teacher: Courtesy, — and perhaps we might say this includes being 
true to the rules." 

In this series of questions the words Bravery, Honor, Loy- 
alty, Courtesy, constituted a composite answer for the original 
question. The words were written on the board as fast as they 
were rescued from the debris of incorrect or partly correct 



A Smaller Number of Questions 67 

answers of the pupils who were thinking aloud. The fact that they 
were thus collected and visualized gave the series of questions a 
value that would have been lacking without a summary. The best 
summary is the one made by the pupils in answer to the final 
question " Now tell me in complete form the qualities in human 
nature which people of that day liked." Answer : Bravery, honor, 
loyalty, courtesy. 

A series of What else? or What next? questions, without the 
final collection and expression by the pupils, is a waste of valu- 
able time. 

Sometimes the failure to elicit good expression is due to am- 
biguity in the phraseology of the question, or to the common habit 
of asking two questions at once, illustrations of which can be 
found in many of the lessons quoted. 

V. Little thought given to the needs of individuals. 

Here again, with the smaller number of questions there is 
opportunity for the needs of the individual students to be con- 
sidered, but I have found no indication that the opportunity has 
been improved. 

VI. The class room the place for displaying knowledge. 

This criticism pertains as directly to the lessons with few ques- 
tions as to those with many. The thought that we should make 
the class room a place for displaying knowledge is nowhere present 
in any aim of education, but it seems to be everywhere present 
in practice. It is inconceivable that teachers need to ask of six- 
teen-year-old pupils as many as one hundred and twenty-five 
questions in order to find out whether or not they have learned 
a five-page lesson. Why then do we fill a class period with 
treadmill work of this type? 

VII. Organization of subject matter. 

In the matter of organization of subject matter there seems to 
be very little difference between the lessons with many questions 
and those with few. Organization of new material and sum- 
marizing of results seem to be negligible factors in class-room 
work, except as the work is done by text-books and teachers. 
Wherever the book is the medium of instruction the organization 
incorporated on its pages constitutes, in a majority of cases, 
the basis of class work. There is rarely any attempt made to 



68 _ The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

reconstruct subject matter in ways better suited to the needs of 
individual groups of students. It is the book first and always. 
All of that train of educational opportunity that accompanies 
the process of organizing subject matter and teaching pupils how 
to organize and to summarize is completely lost sight of in slavish 
adherence to the text-book. It is the type of education that con- 
cerns itself with teaching the book instead of teaching the children. 
The evil grows as pupils are made to depend more and more 
upon texts for instruction when they get into the higher grades 
of elementary school and into high school. At the very time when 
they should grow in the power to discriminate, to select and to 
apply what is vital to them in all the vast encyclopedia of fact 
presented to them, they are being stuffed with the masses of 
fact selected for them and arranged for them by some one else. 
Small wonder that we find so little knowledge well digested. 

Facts have " relative values " according to the uses which they 
serve. It is part of the educative process to reveal values and 
to train pupils to the habit of measuring relative values. 1 This 
cannot be accomplished through the type of recitation that contains 
seventy-five or more questions testing verbal memory. Here we 
have a lesson on Charlemagne from Robinson's " History of 
Western Europe." The lesson is " heard " according to the organ- 
ization by topics as found on the margin of the text and the 
number of questions per topic is roughly indicated here : 

Charlemagne's personal appearance 3 

His education 2 

The Charlemagne of romance 3 

Charlemagne's idea of a great Christian Empire 4 

Conquest of Saxons 6 

Conversion of Saxons 3 

Foundation of towns in Northern Germany 6 

Charlemagne becomes king of the Lombards 2 

Incorporation of Aquitaine and Bavaria 6 

Charlemagne's foreign policy 5 

Marches and Margraves 4 

Charlemagne in Spain 3 

Charlemagne crowned Emperor 1 

Charlemagne merited his title 4 

Continuity of the Roman Empire 6 

Charlemagne's system of government 4 

"Missi Dominici" 2 

Dark elements before Charlemagne 6 

Elements of learning preserved by Church 10 

Establishment of schools 8 

1 See McMurry, How to Study and Teaching How to Study. 



A Smaller Number of Questions 69 

The recitation of this lesson proceeded with monotonous regu- 
larity, all facts evidently being regarded as of equal value. The 
fact that Charlemagne's nose was " somewhat above the common 
size " was received with the same degree of emphasis as the truly 
significant fact of his power as an organizer. Such a lesson might 
well be illustrated thus, one vertical mark representing each of the 
questions indicated above. 



In such a lesson everything proceeds on a dead level of uni- 
formity ; there is no hint of relative values ; there are no mounts 
of prominence ; there is no summarizing of the few leading facts 
to be carried over as the basis for the next day's work. If a 
lesson is ever worth teaching it is sure to contain certain facts 
that are more important than others, facts that may be designated 
as mounts of prominence. Around each of these mounts a cer- 
tain accumulation of preliminary or explanatory instruction must 
of necessity centre in order to raise the essentials to eminence. 
The author of the chapter in question suggests on page 79 a 
plan of organization which seemed to be wholly lost sight of in 
the recitation. He says, " We shall consider him (Charlemagne) 
first as a conqueror, then as an organizer and creator of govern- 
mental institutions, and lastly as a promoter of culture and en- 
lightenment." 1 These three values combined with the preliminary 
ones regarding his appearance and personality would easily con- 
stitute four mounts of prominence for the lesson around which 
all explanatory material would naturally group itself in relative 
degrees of importance. 

To carry a homely illustration further, such a lesson might be 
presented thus : 




Fig. 2 

The four mounts of prominence suggested by the author are 
represented by a, b, c, d. A certain number of questions upon 



Robinson, History of Western Europe, p. 79. 



70 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

minor facts are necessary to raise these significant facts to rela- 
tive prominence, but this accomplished, they sink into insignifi- 
cance and need no longer be retained in memory. A, b, c, d, are 
essentials; they bear a definite relation to each other and to the 
preceding work; they serve as basis for future work. 

It is not sufficient that a, b, c, d, be illuminated for an instant 
by the searchlight of the teacher's intelligence ; they must be 
appreciated by the pupils ; they must be sought for and found 
by them as far as possible, and fixed by repetition at the close 
of the hour. 

This matter of summarizing essentials at the close of an hour 
is a very necessary step towards ability to organize new subject 
matter when one approaches it alone and unaided. I have not 
found it to be a general feature of class instruction in our schools 
to expect pupils to make summaries of work. In only three of 
the one hundred lessons observed were there any attempts to 
summarize at the close of the hour; in several more there was 
at the beginning of an hour a gathering up of main facts of a 
preceding lesson. This latter method is rarely successful unless 
the summary has been well made at the close of the former lesson, 
for a summary, to be potent, should come when all factors are 
fresh in memory. Frequently the summary is made by the teacher 
at the beginning of the hour, as in the following : 

Teacher: Yesterday, in your work, we took up the results of the 
Persian wars, and we saw what the result was to Persia, how they had 
been limited in their power; and we saw the result to Greece, how they 
had won the victories, and how they were getting to be pretty confident of 
their own powers; and we saw how Athens had seen her opportunity, 
and how she could build up her power. We saw also that while she was 
absolutely destroyed, her buildings all gone, she still felt she had a city, 
and she saw the possibility of bringing that back into power. Who was 
leading her at that moment? 

The pupils could have collected a summary of the chief re- 
sults of the Persian wars at the close of their preceding lesson 
just as well as the teacher, if they had been expected to do so. 
Then the call to attention on being asked to repeat it at the be- 
ginning of this hour would have been a more effective stimulus 
than the one that greeted them when the teacher began to sum- 
marize for them. 

Our teachers seem to feel that pupils cannot do things well 
enough to be trusted with the most important activities of a 



A Smaller Number of Questions yi 

lesson. The consequence is that the over-zealous teacher invari- 
ably steps into the breach and performs the work himself. The 
stenographic lessons substantiate this statement at one point and 
another. It certainly is easier for the teacher to give a sum- 
mary than to wait for the pupils to work it out, and if the 
possession of that summary is the one thing desired it would be 
quite right to hand down summaries from one generation to 
another just as we hand down books and manuscripts. But 
the point is that the summary does not amount to a row of pins 
except as the result of a process of intellectual activity. 

What should we think of a teacher of manual work who said 
to his boys, " The hardest thing you have to do to-day is to 
make a perfect mortise and tenon joint. It will take you too 
long to do it, so I will make it for you, while you look on." 
Yet here is the text-book teacher who says, " The most impor- 
tant thing just here is a good summary; I want you to take 
it down in your note books as I give it to you and learn it for 
to-morrow." 

So far as our data furnish evidence, the paramount con- 
clusions regarding our ability to measure the efficiency of in- 
struction by the number of questions are these: 

A Large Number of Questions is an Indisputable Index 
of Bad Teaching (except in some modern language and de- 
velopmental lessons). 

A Small Number of Questions Does Not Necessarily In- 
dicate Good Teaching. 

Efficiency of instruction involves good questioning ; good ques- 
tioning is synonymous with the use of good questions. That we 
do not find good questions identified with instruction to any ap- 
preciable extent even in lessons reflecting a relatively small num- 
ber of questions, may find its explanation in any one, or all, of 
the following conditions: (a) The absence of clearly defined 
purposes for instruction; (b) failure to appreciate the function 
of the question as a medium of instruction; (c) dominance of 
the text-book; (d) the feeling of indifference to the methods 
of the recitation in colleges and training schools for teachers ; 
(e) the almost total neglect of supervision of instruction in sec- 
ondary schools. 



PART III 

EFFICIENCY OF INSTRUCTION AS MEASURED 
BY THE QUALITY OF THE QUESTIONS 

What do we mean when we talk about the quality of a ques- 
tion? What is a good question? Since the number of ques- 
tions cannot be the full measure of efficiency in questioning, 
what other tests must be applied to determine efficiency? "If 
I always ask Why questions and How questions, shall I be a 
better teacher than if I ask When and Where and What ques- 
tions ? " asks one teacher who has turned the searchlight of in- 
vestigation upon his own methods of instruction. 

The attempt to deduce a formula for guidance in phrasing 
questions or to write out a prescription for the cure of all the 
evils of questioning would be as futile as to reduce the ideal of 
instruction to a sentence, or the philosophy of education to a 
maxim. 

It is impossible to say that a Why question will always be a 
better one than a When or a What question, because there are 
other elements besides form that enter into the consideration of 
quality or worth. I presume there is little doubt but that the 
best question so far as motivation is concerned is the one a 
person asks when he really wishes to know something — the kind 
that comes spontaneously when he seeks information to round 
out and promote thought at just the point where help is needed. 
In the world outside the class room, in all phases of social inter- 
course, the one who wishes concrete information asks questions 
to secure it. In the relationship of adults with adults, adults 
and children, and children with each other, the one who wishes 
to learn is the questioner. A child questions persistently in his 
search for knowledge and his questions are well-aimed and 
purposeful forces for education. 

Within a few months, I have chanced to hear two conversa- 
tions carried on in front of a window through which students 

72 



The Quality of Questions 73 

could be seen modeling in clay. In one instance the conversa- 
tion between child and father ran thus : " What are they doing 
down there, daddy?" "They are modeling in clay." "What 
are they doing that for ? " " Well, they want to learn how to 
make a statue that looks like somebody." " Is the somebody 
there?" "Yes, he is probably sitting in the corner." "What 
are they making it of?" "Of clay. We will walk around on 
116th Street, if you like, and I will show you a statue that was 
made by a sculptor who began it just as these students are 
making that one." We can picture the child's introduction to 
Daniel French's Alma Mater in front of the Columbia Library 
and the unfolding of his intelligence regarding its construction 
as the boy plied his questions, and received stimulating answers. 
A few days later, standing before the same window another 
child asked practically the same initial question of his nurse, 
who gave the response, " O, making mud pies, I guess." " What 
are those big people making mud pies for, Mary?" " O, don't 
bother me now with any more questions." Whereupon the 
child turned his attention and his activities to teasing his dog. 
In both cases the questions were " natural," that is, the would- 
be learners were the questioners. The educational opportunity 
was the same: in the first instance the learner's initiative was 
judiciously guided ; in the other it was killed outright. 

-These situations are frequently paralleled in class rooms. The 
natural question has the richest functioning values but it must 
be admitted that it cannot find full freedom in the class room 
because of the complexity of the educational problem when a 
group of children is to be instructed. It is equally true that 
the natural question does not need to be barred completely 
from the class room ; there is plenty of opportunity to entertain 
good natural questions, and to turn them to account as important 
assets in instruction. A sensible natural question is a valuable 
return for instruction, for it is an indication that the pupil's 
mind is operating " under its own steam " ; the momentum once 
secured, the teacher needs to exercise only the guiding hand. 

As soon as the question is taken over by the teacher in the 
class room, it ceases to be " natural " and assumes a " formal " 
value. The teacher does not ask the questions because he really 
desires the forthcoming information as so much concrete knowl- 



7 4 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

edge; he knows that already. The pupil, in answering, realizes 
this and he tells you what he thinks you want him to tell. The 
teacher seeks information, but in a different sense. He asks 
questions to see if his pupil knows, or to help him to know, or 
to secure a clue for the direction of the next question. Only in 
this interpretation is the information of any value to the ques- 
tioner. In this sense the motive of the formal question is wholly 
different from that of the natural question. 

In kindergarten and lower grades of elementary school where 
instruction is more nearly natural, and where class work centers 
about the interests of the children, the questioning activity is 
likely to be more natural ; that is, both teacher and pupils, while 
working over some vital problem, ask questions whose answers 
are really wanted. In this way the question and answer recita- 
tion may become a true conversation hour, with pupils asking 
and pupils and teacher answering, or teacher asking and pupils 
answering, the teacher the while skillfully guiding the class 
towards a desired goal. 

Such an ideal use of the question and answer recitation is just 
as much to be desired for upper grades of elementary school, 
for high school, and for college instruction ; that it does not now 
exist in the higher schools is due in part to the differences in 
motive of instruction. It may be just as desirable that education 
in upper grades and increasingly in high school and college 
should center about the real interests of the learners, but that 
motive has not yet been generally accepted. Instruction in the 
higher schools is still far more formal than it is in the kinder- 
garten and elementary school. The questioning reflects it and 
we find teachers generally using the question in the formal way 
as an implement of instruction. 

Since it is not the purpose of this study to promulgate an 
educational theory of instruction for higher schools, but rather 
to stand upon the ideals that are generally accepted and to 
measure the current practice of the better class of teachers by 
these established standards, our chief concern is with the formal 
question rather than the natural question. Hence, in consider- 
ing further the worth of a question, it is the worth of the formal 
question that I have in mind. 

How, then, can we judge the worth or the quality of a ques- 



The Quality of Questions 75 

tion? In estimating the quality of a formal question, I should 
say there are at least three elements we need to know : ( 1 ) the 
degree of reflection it stimulates; (2) its adaptability to the ex- 
perience and the work of the pupil; (3) its "motor-power" in 
drawing forth a well rounded thought and adequate expression 
for the same. 

I. A good question should stimulate reflection. 

Every question provokes thought if it produces any sort of 
accurate answer, but not every question stimulates reflection. 
Even the extent and the intensity of reflection may vary widely 
and should vary somewhat in every lesson so that all questions 
will not operate in the same groove nor keep in motion the same 
processes of thought activity. As we have already observed, 
part of the difficulty with the present-day practice is that so 
many questions furnish exercise for verbal memory alone. As- 
sociative memory, even, is neglected along with other processes 
of discrimination, association and judgment. 

I think I can best illustrate my meaning regarding the extent 
and intensity of reflection by comparison of a few sets of 
questions : 

When was the battle of Waterloo fought! 

What is a polygon? 

What is the exception in the declension of dea? 

What kings of England led crusades? 

How many times is the number six contained in sixty? 

Where is the cotton belt? 

For these questions you either know or you do not know the 
answers. No amount of reflection will produce the fact if it is 
not already in memory. The question stimulates memory and in 
that sense it provokes thought, but the element of reflection is 
not present to any appreciable degree, as it is in the following 
group : 

What qualities in the character of Brutus are brought home to us 
in the last scene of Julius Caesar? 

What color in drapery will look best with this wall paper? 
What is there about a gray squirrel that reminds you of a rat? 
Why do you like the Lady of the Lake better than Marmion? 
Do you consider that an apology was called for? 



76 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

These questions cannot be answered from memory alone. The 
associations, discriminations, and individual judgments must be 
made by the one who is questioned, using as his basis certain 
facts in his possession. A degree of reflection is called for, al- 
though the intensity of reflection is not especially marked. 

With the following group the intensity of reflection is more 
pronounced : 

How did religion promote the growth of the Arabic and Carolingian 
Empires respectively? 

To what extent did Jefferson and the early American statesmen owe 
their ideas on education to Kousseau? 

Place in your note-book as heading "Mason-and-Dixon's Line" and 
enter all fitting information as you proceed. 

What various forms of self-activity can you discover among the chil- 
dren of any class room? 

What special qualifications in addition to knowledge of subject matter, 
seem to you desirable for the teacher of history in the secondary school? 

Contrast the treatment of nature in Elizabethan literature, giving refer- 
ences to specific authors by way of concrete illustration. 

Trace changes in the concept " tyrant." 

In considering the Eodentiae, what are the chief points of difference 
between the Sciurus Carolinensis and the Mus Museums? 

Any one of the last set of questions furnishes food for con- 
siderable reflection even for adults. The ability to cope with 
problems such as these and to respond to them adequately is a 
resultant of the educative process. There must be some ques- 
tions stimulating reflection introduced into daily class exercises 
if our pupils are ever to grow in ability to reflect. 

II. A good question should be adapted to the experience of 
the pupils. 

One element to be considered in making a fair estimate of the 
question is its adaptability to the experiences of the one ques- 
tioned. By way of illustration of this point, I will quote a 
class-room experience. The following question was proposed 
to a group of college students for over-night reflection : " Is 
the number of questions asked by the teacher a test of good 
teaching? " 

It seemed to be a good question for mature and thoughtful 
people preparing for the teaching profession — a question that 
would plough rather deeply into experience and promote some 



The Quality of Questions 77 

serious reflection. As one section of the class assembled next 
day, the question was repeated and the following answers strag- 
gled in: "I don't think so." "Yes, I believe it is." "Too 
many questions show bad teaching." " Sometimes teachers do 
not ask questions enough," etc., sufficient to show that the ques- 
tion had not gripped the thought life of any member of the class. 
What is the inference regarding the nature of the question? It 
was designed to stimulate reflection but it failed of its accom- 
plishment. Instead of getting into the ground it failed even 
to scratch the surface. 

Another section of the class met later in the day and the 
question was again presented. A student took the initiative 
promptly, saying : " I wish to discuss that question ; I have 
thought of it for some time and I have reached these conclu- 
sions : 

First : the number of questions is not a criterion of good or 
bad teaching. 

Second : the mere fact of number does not give sufficient 
data upon which to base a decision. 

Third : the quality of the leading questions must be known 
before even the number can be criticized." 

Everyone was ready for the discussion which was generally 
thoughtful and profitable. The question had ploughed into the 
ground quite thoroughly and stirred up processes of thought 
activity that did not cease even with the dismissal of the class. 
There was no doubt regarding the value of the question for that 
group. 

The explanation of the different attitude of the two groups 
was found in the fact that the first section consisted of college 
seniors who had never taught and they had little or nothing to 
draw upon in the way of experience in such matters, while the 
second section included men and women in the forefront of 
their profession. This is an instance where one question had 
to be judged both a poor question and a good one: poor where 
it was not adapted to the group, and good where it fitted exactly 
into experience. 

A question, then, cannot be tested as an intellectual thing apart 
from the group to which it is addressed : to be a good question 
it must be rightly related to experience in order to promote 
profitable reflection. 



7 8 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

III. A good question should draw forth a well rounded 
thought. 

A third element in estimating the worth of a question is its 
" motor-power " in drawing forth a complete thought. The ex- 
pression of the thought should be commensurate with the com- 
pleteness of the thought. 

A lecturer may propose a question to a group of adults with 
such effect that some of his hearers will carry it away with them 
and live with it for days or weeks without giving expression to 
the thoughts aroused. This may be considered the highest type 
of question if it stimulates the adult mind to continued activity. 
But with children in the formative period we cannot expect sus- 
tained concentration without frequent responses. Hence we ask 
simple questions and compel prompt answers in order to keep 
attention focused upon the subject in hand. When we ask a 
question calling for an association of ideas, we have no way of 
measuring the potency of the question except by the answer. 
The answer must fully reflect the result of the association called 
for or else we are in danger of fostering superficiality where we 
aim to develop accuracy and thoroughness. 

Careless and inaccurate answers are frequently accepted. This 
is sometimes due to ambiguity in the phraseology of the question ; 
sometimes to the fact that a question is too difficult to elicit 
good mental reactions, and sometimes to a teacher's failure to 
hold the question in attention long enough for thought processes 
to be completed. 

In illustration of the first type of question that must naturally 
fail to evoke satisfactory expression from pupils, I quote the 
following assortment of questions, each of which readily reveals 
its particular fault in form: 

What was the greatest achievement of Charlemagne? What title did 
the Pope confer upon him? (Double question.) 

What was the theorem that preceded the one that Mary gave last? 
(Ambiguous.) 

Don't you think the language was hard to understand? 

Does the story end well with the lovers all married at the end? (Answer 
embodied in the question.) 

The Saxons occupied all that country between Cologne and the Elbe 
and north to Bremen. They had no towns or roads and very few posses- 
sions so they could move easily and hide themselves away easily. Who 
conquered them? 



The Quality of Questions 79 

There was a substance in the glass and I added something to it, 
changing its color to ? 

By way of illustration of the point that a question is some- 
times too difficult to elicit good mental reactions, I will quote 
from a lesson in breadmaking: 

"When I put the bread to rise this morning, I wanted it to rise 
quickly. How did I accomplish it?" 

The answer came, "You put it in a place between 70 and 90 degrees, 
for it to rise." (A good answer.) 

Then the teacher asked, ' ' Tell me all about it, the setting and rising. ' ' 

Follow, if you will, the reactions of the group to this question 
keeping in mind that we are expecting to learn all about the 
setting and rising of bread. 

Teacher: Tell me all about it, the setting and rising. 

Edna: Yeast is one cell plant, that feeds on moisture, — feeds on sugar, 
and when it reproduces it gives off carbon dioxide gas — 

Teacher: Is she really answering the question? Don't tell me every- 
thing you know about yeast, — just answer the question. What was the 
question, class? 

Pupils: If you wanted it to rise quickly, what should you do? 

Teacher: Did the fact that the yeast reproduced, or budded, have 
anything to do with this, or did she tell us that too soon? Begin again, 
Edna. 

Edna: Put in a place between 70 and 90 degrees, because otherwise it 
wouldn't rise, — yeast wouldn't act. 

Teacher: How does the yeast make the bread rise? 

Elaine: When it grows it gives off carbon dioxide gas, and that 
makes the bread rise, etc. 

The question " Tell me all about it, the setting and the rising " 
was presumably designed to provoke a summary of the processes, 
both practical and scientific, in the making of bread. It failed 
to draw a complete thought. At least part of the difficulty in 
this case was due to the fact that the scope of the question was 
too great. The pupils had not sufficient power of organization 
to give spontaneously a full answer to a question involving so 
many factors. This question is on a par with " Compare Cooper 
with Scott " ; " Compare nitrogen with oxygen " ; " Compare the 
American government with the English," — types of all-embrac- 
ing questions that teachers do sometimes ask of a pupil, ap- 
parently expecting satisfactory answers to be gathered up in 
his thought world and expressed in suitable form within thirty 
seconds. 



80 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

The nature of the answer that the teacher draws in response 
to a question of this sort should be in itself sufficient rebuke, 
the bread lesson to wit. The question, " Compare Cooper with 
Scott," once brought a few fragmentary answers thus : " Both 
were writers of stories — yarns — one was an Englishman and one 
an American. Scott wrote about black knights and Cooper wrote 
about red Indians. Cooper told the truth about his Indians, but 
Scott did not about the knights." Five or six different pupils 
contributed to this " composite " answer. The fragments in 
themselves were not objectionable but the answers passed as a 
satisfactory " comparison of Cooper and Scott," and each one 
of the five pupils thought he had answered it. It is through such 
processes as these that we pauperize the intellects of normal 
and healthy-minded children who should be questioned accord- 
ing to their capacity and then held to the completion of the 
thought called for. 

In the same lesson on breadmaking there are two questions 
that seem to be reasonably good: " What does the yeast do when 
it doesn't get any sugar ? " and " If yeast doesn't have any sugar 
to feed upon, will it make bread rise?" Considered apart from 
their answers we should say that they would stimulate a degree 
of reflection and that they are adapted to the work of high school 
girls studying the processes of breadmaking. Now read them 
in the context. 

Teacher: Sometimes we use no sugar; we can make it simply water, 
flour, salt and yeast; what does the yeast do when it doesn't get any 
sugar ? 

Pupil : Moisture. 

Teacher: If yeast doesn't have sugar to feed upon, will it make 
bread rise? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: How so? 

Pupil : Warmth. 

Those questions were well designed but they failed of fruition 
when the teacher accepted " moisture " as an answer to the first 
and " warmth " for the third. The answers certainly did not 
reveal completeness of thought. I believe the girls had sufficient 
experience to answer accurately and fully, but these haphazard 
words were accepted and consequently the questions did not 
function as they should in drawing forth completed thoughts. In 



The Quality of Questions 81 

this instance the failure of the question to do its work was not 
due to the phraseology of the question nor to a degree of com- 
prehensiveness that was beyond them but rather to the failure 
of the teacher to stay with her question until the pupils gave 
the time and attention necessary to round out the thought. 

In all these illustrations the answers were inaccurate or incom- 
plete; the reason in each case was close at hand in the nature 
of the question or in its treatment in the hands of the teacher. 
I believe therefore that we have not the full measure of the 
efficiency of a question until we know the answer that is given 
to it. The answer should give adequate expression of a well 
rounded thought. 

With the above mentioned criteria of the worth of a question 
or series of questions as a guide, I will gather up from the 
various manuscripts some of the questions that approximate more 
or less closely the type of question that contributes to efficient 
instruction. If they do not appear to the reader to possess any 
special value kindly consider that I am quoting the best I can 
find. 

There are about thirty natural questions in the total of two 
thousand in the stenographic reports. Some of them were asked 
by the teachers when they wished to learn whether or not note 
books were ready, etc. A few were asked by the pupils when 
they really wished to clear up a doubtful point, as with the 
following : 
Pupil: Can you have rhyme in blank verse? 
Pupil: Wordsworth was not trying to imitate the old ballads was he? 

Pupil: Can't the ammonia vapor turn back into a liquid? 

Teacher : That is another reasonable question : Can 't all the am- 
monia vapor turn back into a liquid as it cools off? The only trouble 
with that is, I shall have to say it can't. In order to liquify ammonia 
gas you have to subject it to a little pressure and very low temperature. 

Pupil: Isn't it lighter than air? 

Teacher: Yes, it is lighter. 

Pupil: The pressure of the air on the outside is greater than the 
ammonia gas. 

Teacher: Yes, but supposing the ammonia gas was under the same 
pressure as the atmosphere, what sort of thing would happen? 

Pupil: Would the gas dissolve? 

Teacher: That is precisely what the gas does. 

The two lessons referred to on page 48 as offering something 
of value in the nature of certain questions deserve some con- 



82 Tlie Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

sideration here. Lesson III is quoted at length, beginning on 
page 2,Z- Lesson V is printed in full in the Appendix. 

The introductory question in the portion of Lesson III quoted 
on page 33 gets away from the text-book and yet it is related 
to the work in hand. The idea of sequels has been suggested. 
The teacher asks : 

"What do you think of sequels as a rule in the writing of books? 
(No answer.) 

The teacher endeavors to make the association more personal 
by changing the form of her question. 

"Are any of your favorite stories written with sequels?" (No answer.) 
Still more personal, 

"Mary, do you recall a story with a sequel?" (Mary admits she does 
not know what a sequel is.) 

"Mary is bothered by the word sequel; who can help her out? What 
is a sequel?" 

Pupil: A sequel is a book that has the same characters in, and comes 
after the other one. 

Teacher: Did you get enough to understand it? George says a 
sequel is a book that has the same characters in and comes after the 
first story. Now, do you know any sequel; have you read a book with a 
sequel ? ' ' 

Now that the obscurity regarding the meaning of " sequel " is 
cleared away there is profitable reflection and there is fullness 
of expression. (See page 33.) 

From the Marmion lesson in the Appendix the first question, 
although primarily a memory question, requires a degree of 
reflection in selecting from memory the parts to be given 
" omitting all unnecessary details." Some of the remaining ques- 
tions intended to stimulate reflection are the following: 

Name all the things that you can think of in Marmion that are char- 
acteristic of the Middle Ages. 

What were the ideals of the knights of that period? 

Have you read stories of other knights besides Marmion? 

Who is the most interesting knight you have ever read about? 

Do you think Marmion was a true knight? 

Do you consider Marmion the hero of the poem? 

In mathematics work the type of question that stimulates reflec- 
tion is illustrated in the algebra lesson reported in the Teachers 
College Record. It is a development lesson upon the use of 



The Quality of Questions 83 

graphs in solution of simultaneous equations. A short block 
of questions is inadequate to show anything of content values 
for a developmental lesson, but they may serve to show that the 
pupils are expected to make careful discriminations and render 
decisions at each step of the development and its application. 

Teacher: If I should take xr=2 : V4, could you find a pair of values, 
Miss C? 

Pupil: Yes, y = 2%. 

Teacher: Will you represent the pair for me, x = 2%, y — 2%; wher« 
is y = 2%? 

Pupil: I should say about the same place. {At the board.) 

Teacher: Let me see where you think that place is. 

Pupil: How did this go (referring to a point previously placed) — out 
this way? 

Teacher: Yes. 

Pupil: x = 2 1 / 4 would be about here. 

Teacher: That is right, thank you, etc. 

Some single questions selected at random form the stenographic 
reports to illustrate a measure of reflection are the following: 

Teacher: Turn to the next ballad, — Lady Clare, — would that have 
pleased the old ballad writers? 

Pupil: I think it would have; it is just the kind of love story they 
liked,- — it all turned out well. 

Teacher: What do you think sterling qualities of mind means here? 
(Answer in full on page 60.) 

Teacher: How does the next step verify that? 
Pupil: It turned the litmus from red to blue. 

Teacher: What quality goes with timidity as a rule? 
Pupil : Shyness. 

Teacher: Which do you think had the more military subject (for 
his writings) Thucydides or Xenophon? 

Teacher: Was it more real? 

Teacher: Was it worth while? 

Teacher: What quality that we mentioned does that illustrate? 

Teacher: How did it make the Greeks feel to conquer the Persians? 

Pupil: Very proud. 

Teacher: Very proud. There is a better word than that. 

Pupil : Vain. 

Teacher: I think I should not say vain. 

Pupil: Satisfied. 



84 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Isn't there a better expression? 

Pupil : Independent. 

Teacher: That is good, independent, but there is still a better one. 

Pupil : Self-confident. 

Teacher: That is just what I wanted — self-confident. 

Teacher: Is Lord Ullin's Daughter the kind of story you think would 
appeal to ancient writers? 

Pupil: It seems so; this one was about an elopement; they seem to 
write that kind of story. 

Teacher: Now was that something to be desired that Europe should 
be saved from Mohammedanism? 

If I collected all the questions stimulating reflection I might 
have between two and three hundred from the total of two thous- 
and, but a large number of them would be the kind represented 
by " What do you think, John? " " What other quality, Mary? " 
" Have you a criticism on that point, Margaret ? " 

Of the type of good question that compels association of ideas 
by calling for a comparison of two things there are only twenty 
in the entire group, ten of the twenty in one English lesson (the 
lesson on comparison of old and new ballads). Teachers are 
evidently doing little to invite or to compel direct associations. 
Of the type of question that calls for the degree of intensity of 
reflection demanded by College Entrance and Regents' questions, 
I find very few indeed. For the best of these see the Marmion 
lesson in the Appendix, and the scattered English lessons. No 
wonder that an examination hour becomes an ordeal, if it calls 
into use abilities that have had no exercise in class work. 

Of memory questions I have made no mention. Pure memory 
questions are good questions to use occasionally, but the element 
of memory is included in all better questions. Why then ask 
a half dozen pure memory questions when one better question 
can be made to embody memory and at the same time call for 
association in memory, and some exercise of judgment? 

If teachers would embody in their scheme for the presenta- 
tion of every lesson a very few thought-provoking questions 
(not more than six or eight probably), — questions based on the 
lesson and calling for associations and discriminations and weigh- 
ing of values, — they would of necessity embody the salient facts 



The Quality of Questions 85 

of the lesson. It would not be necessary to " hear " the facts, 
paragraph after paragraph. 

The best part of a lesson plan is its backbone of questions 
(unfortunately not often included in the plan). If they are good 
questions they will incorporate teacher's aims and pupils' aims, 
ultimate aims and immediate aims. If all the rest of the plan 
is perfect and its backbone of questions is weak, little need be 
expected for efficiency in instruction. 

It is difficult to get teachers to work out a few questions for 
the backbone of a lesson, for the reason that it is much easier 
for them to ask a number of questions than it is to organize 
subject matter and definitely determine the mounts of promi- 
nence for any lesson. 

I believe that the remedy for many of the present evils of 
instruction lies in the improvement of our methods of questioning. 

The aims of any school for the education of the streams of 
pupils passing through its doors year after year must be meas- 
ured by the kind of work carried on in its individual classrooms. 

There are established ideals of education for secondary schools 
and there are established ideals for the conduct of the recita- 
tion. Even if these ideals are not wholly in accord with the 
most advanced theories guiding the practice of elementary 
schools, they are nevertheless worthy ideals. Furthermore, they 
are possible of realization. 

A fairly characteristic study of secondary class-room practice 
shows us that the highest aims of education and the highest 
ideals of instruction are not in evidence to any appreciable extent. 
They are reserved apparently for catalogue embellishment and 
for convention oratory. Who is responsible for the chasm that 
exists between aims and practices in these schools? I believe the 
responsibility must first of all be shouldered by the supervising 
officer, whether he is the superintendent in a small system, or 
the principal in a large system, or the specially appointed super- 
visor. There must be unity of purpose first of all: then there 
must be supervision of instruction. 

No school system would for an instant allow an inexperienced 
clerk to manage its financial affairs without supervision — but it 
does frequently happen that novices in the teaching profession, 
fresh from college, are permitted to undertake the realization 
of the educational aims of the school, through the medium of 



86 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Latin, English, or history, with no professional preparation and 
little or no class-room supervision. If the energies of superin- 
tendent or principal are consumed by the administrative duties 
of a school or system, there should be another officer of equal 
or superior rank to devote himself exclusively to supervision of 
instruction. 

In the matter of questioning alone, a supervisor could accom- 
plish much for instruction in a very short time if he did nothing 
more than to insist upon introducing into the plan of every 
lesson a short series of related questions calling for reflection. The 
results that might reasonably be expected are substantially these : 
Where six or eight purposeful questions are asked and ade- 
quately answered, the number of questions will be reduced ; the 
pace will become more normal ; pupils will be forced to tie up 
their facts in profitable relations; the several questions will 
serve as high lights in the lesson ; pupils will have practice in 
the habit of studying a lesson for the salient points ; they will 
eventually grow into the habit of organizing subject matter for 
themselves. With such attainments as these we should have 
some positive factors to deal with in measuring efficiency of in- 
struction, and a definite basis for further constructive work. 

At present, there is serious need of intelligent study and care- 
ful supervision of the use of the question as a medium of instruc- 
tion. Skillful supervision of questioning will of necessity force 
unification of aims, better organization of subject matter, more 
consistent methods of instruction, and more rational practice, for 
these all stand revealed in the teacher's questions. 



APPENDIX 

STENOGRAPHIC LESSON REPORT 

English Lesson 

Teacher: Will someone give the story of Marmion, omitting all un- 
necessary details? Dorothy? 

Dorothy: Marmion was riding toward Scotland with his train; he 
was going there partly, I think, to delay the war Scotland was preparing 
for England, and partly to find out the cause of it; and as he rode along 
he came to Norham Castle, and there he stopped with his train, and 
they spent an evening there, and while he was there Sir William Heron 
asked him where the page was that had been with him the last time, 
or whether he was only a lady-love; and Marmion asked Sir William Heron 
where his wife was, and he said, in King James' Court, for ladies do not 
like to stay at home all the time; next morning they started out again, 
with the Palmer as a guide. In the meantime it tells about some nuns 
who were going to a monastery to try the case of a nun who had broken 
her vows. In the monastery there were three judges and this girl, who 
was dressed as a page, and who tried to hide a — sort of label — I don't 
know what to call it — that showed she had been in Marmion 's train — 

Teacher: Can anyone supply the word? 

Pupil: It was Marmion 's crest that she had on. 

Dorothy: And one of the monks there took down her hair, and it 
was all beautiful round her pale face. She asked to be able to tell her 
own story, and she told how Marmion had come there and wooed her, and 
had taken her from the monastery and she rode as a horseboy in his 
train for three years, and then he met another girl whom he thought 
more fair, and had rich lands, and Constance was loved no more, and 
she was very sad at this, but Clare, who was the girl that Marmion loved 
now, had another lover whose name was Ralph De Wilton, and Marmion 
accuses De Wilton of treason, so that they come into the lists to fight, 
and Ralph De Wilton was overthrown, and Marmion would have married 
Clare, but Clare had fled to the monastery. In the meantime Constance 
was taken by a monk, who said he would take care of her, but who 
betrayed her and took her to the monastery, and she was built into the 
walls and left to die there, and the nuns went back to England, and on 
the way they were captured by a Scottish vessel and kept in Scotland, 
and then sent back in charge of Marmion. Then it goes on to tell about 
Marmion. 

87 



83 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: That will do so far, Dorothy. Any criticism? Did she leave 
out any essential points? 

Pupil: She left out the bundle of papers that Constance gave to the 
abbot. 

Teacher: That comes later. 

Pupil: Constance forged the letters. 

Teacher: Yes, that is true. 

Pupil: And wasn't one of those nuns Clare? 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: And Castle Norham is on the borderline between Scotland 
and England. 

Teacher: Yes. Go on from that point, and omit all details that are 
not necessary. Beatrice? She left Marmion having started from the Castle. 

Beatrice: He started from the Castle, and after he left Norham 
Castle he arrived that evening at an inn where he and his retinue stayed. 
While he was there, at Norham Castle — he asked for a guide, and a 
Palmer was given, and they started off, and the Palmer guided him to 
this inn, and while they were there the Palmer cast gloomy looks over the 
party, and a young man was asked to sing, and he said he couldn't sing 
as well as Constant, as they called Constance de Beverley, the page. That 
night the host told a tale, and Marmion didn't like it, — it was, if you 
went to a certain castle, you met your enemy, and that night he could not 
rest, and one of his squires was sleeping in the hay in the barn, and 
he waked him and told him he had been thinking about this tale, and 
he wanted to go to this castle and see what would happen, and he went 
and met there a man with whom he fought, and when he came back it 
was found in the morning that another horse had been ridden, and 
one of the horses died. 

Teacher: Carl? 

Carl: I don't think he went to a castle at all. The host told the 
story about the king of Scotland, and he went to find out — and Marmion 
went out, and the man, or rather the ghost as Marmion called it, was there. 

Teacher: He was his worst enemy. 

Pupil: Yes; and in the morning they blamed the Palmer for that, 
that he must have had something to do with it. 

Teacher : Marion ? 

Marion: When his enemy was going to kill him, he prayed to St. 
George, so his enemy didn't kill him. 

Teacher: I am going to ask someone, just in a few words, to tell 
the main results of the story. Carlton, you tell. 

Carlton: When Marmion went to the Court, he went to see King 
James, and he couldn't see him right off, and he sent him to Castle 
Tantallon, where Angus Douglas lived, and he stayed there several days, 
and when he left he wanted to shake hands with Douglas, but Douglas 
would not do it, and said that his castles and all his lands were his king 's, 
but his hand was his own, and he never would shake with Marmion, and 
Marmion was very angry, and he said any messengers, no matter how 
mean, who were sent there by England, they were Douglas's equal, and 



Stenographic Lesson Report 89 

if he said Marmion was not equal to any lord in Scotland, he lied, and 
Douglas said he should not get away without being punished for saying 
that, and he called to the guards to put up the drawbridge, but Marmion 
put the spurs to his horse, and got through the gateway and then went 
to England. 

Pupil: Went to James' Court first, and on his way back he stopped 
at this castle, and he came back with these nuns and took Clare away 
from them and kept her with him, and then they had the battle at Flodden 
Field, but before that he knew that Ealph De Wilton was the Palmer. 

Teacher: That is not very clear; anyone clear that up? Edward? 

Edward: After he had left the castle where Douglas was, he noticed 
that the Palmer was not with them, and one man said he had seen the 
Palmer riding off in armor, and he wouldn't believe it, and Marmion 
knew who the Palmer was, and going on to Flodden Field Marmion gives 
the battle-cry, and starts off and leaves Clare in charge of two young 
knights, and charges to the head of the army and fights very bravely. 

Teacher: A very few words. 

Edward: Marmion 's horse comes back without a rider, and this young 
knight carries him back, and he is dying and asks for water, and Clare 
brings him some, and he asks about Constance, and she tells him that 
she is dead, and he says some words, "Charge, Chester — " 

Teacher: What zcas that he said? 

Pupil : ' ' Charge, Chester, charge ! On, Stanley, on ! ' ' 

Teacher: There is another part that has teen left out altogether. 

Edward: And then Ralph De Wilton goes in and fights very bravely, 
and gains back all his lands, and finally marries Clare. 

Teacher : Margaret t 

Margaret : He left out that the abbess had told Ealph De Wilton about 
the forged letters. 

Teacher: Name all the things you can think of in Marmion that are 
characteristic of the Middle Ages. 

Pupil: The feuds. 

Teacher: What do you mean ~by that? 

Pupil: The system of retainers belonging to the lands, and the lands 
belonging to the nobles and the nobles belonging to the king. 

Edward: Ycu could tell because when Marmion said that Ralph De 
Wilton had done something, they had a duel, which they would not do 
in these days; tournaments; and during the conversation you can tell 
it was ancient times — and they don't have Palmers now-a-days — and they 
fought with spears and shields. 

Teacher: You spoke of the tournament; what thing was settled in that 
tournament between Ralph De Wilton and Marmion? 

Pupil: Whether Ralph De Wilton had really committed treason against 
the king. 

Teacher: Did they believe that a tournament could possibly settle a 
question of right and wrong? 

Pupil: They thought that Cod would spare the one in the right. 



90 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Any other things you can think of the author brought into 
this poem to show it was the Middle Ages? 

Pupil: The castles he visited all along the road. 

Teacher: Anything else? 

Pupil: The drawbridges, and the way he was entertained at those 
castles. 

Pupil: And all around the castles they had high walls, and a body 
of water all around. 

Teacher: Something else? 

Pupil: You could tell by the kings of that time, James the IV, and 
Henry the VIII, and the Battle of Flodden Field. 

Teacher: What things does Scott bring into this poem that make you 
feel that it is Middle Ages and warlike time? All these things you have 
mentioned, castles, tournaments, etc., show it wasn't that. 

Pupil: They had a portcullis. 

Teacher: The castles were well guarded. 

Pupil: The way of travel in those days. 

Teacher: And they had a guard, you remember, for protection. There 
was great danger for Marmion in going through that country. For whom 
was he constantly looking out, what people? 

Pupil: The robbers on the borderland; if they were in England, they 
were not in Scottish territory, and if they were in Scotland, they were 
not on English territory. 

Teacher: What other characteristics of the age have we, one you 
have not mentioned, very important? (Refers to picture upon wall of 
class room.) 

Pupils: The monasteries and the monks. 

Teacher: The influence the Church had at that time. Do you know 
what Church was in England at that time? 

Pupil: Roman Catholic. 

Teacher: Boman Catholic Church. What were the ideals of the knights 
of that period? 

Pupil: They must be brave, fight well, ride well, and be faithful. 

Teacher: Anything else? 

Pupil: They must always be loyal to their king, and help anyone in 
trouble. 

Teacher: These were the chief points. Have you read any stories of 
any other knights besides Marmion? 

Pupil: Sir Launfal, Ivanhoe. 

Pupil: All the stories of the Round Table. 

Pupil : Parsifal. 

Teacher: Does that belong to this period? 

Pupil: A little earlier. 

Teacher: Still, you have read about knights and their ideals; any other 
stories? 

Pupil: Sir Nigel. 

Teacher: Who is the most interesting knight you have read about? 

Pupil : Ivanhoe. 



Stenographic Lesson Report 91 

Teacher: You liked that best? How many do? 

(Hands.) 

Teacher: A good story of a very interesting knight. Do you think 
Marmion was a true knight? 

(Hands.) 

Pupil : I think he was as far as fighting and braveness were concerned, 
but when he put Clare in prison, — I don't think that showed a good spirit. 

Teacher: Why did he put Clare in prison? 

Pupil: I mean Constance — he wanted to marry Clare, and he put Con- 
stance in prison to get her out of the way. 

Teacher: Did he put her in there expecting she would be killed? 

Pupil : No. 

Teacher: Your opinion, Arthur? 

Arthur: He was worse when he forged the letters. 

Teacher: You think that was the greatest wrong tliat he did? How 
many agree? 

Pupils : Yes. 

Teacher: He simply felt that Constance would be taken care of in that 
monastery. Do you consider him the hero of the poem? 

Pupil: I do, yes; because it is mostly about him. 

Teacher: Well, you say he is a man guilty of treason, and he certainly 
didn't protect the weak,— not a hero in that respect. 

Dorothy: I think the hero in a book ought to be a very good man, 
and I think the man Scott has in mind to be the hero is Ralph De Wilton. 

Teacher: Your opinion, Bruce? 

Bruce: I think Ealph De Wilton is the hero in a way, — I think 
Marmion is a sort of hero, — toward the end Marmion is, and Ralph De 
Wilton in the beginning. 

Teacher: Which one triumphs in the end? 

Pupil: I think Marmion, — I mean Ralph De Wilton. 

Teacher: Your opinion, Carl? 

Carl: I think Marmion; he wasn't a hero through the book, but I 
think if he could have revived after he had been hurt, he would have 
been a good man; he was sorry when he heard about Constance. 

Teacher: Ed? 

Ed: I think he is, it is a sort of an English knight; I don't judge 
a man by whether he is good or not, — the chief man in the book. 

Pupil: It tells more about Marmion than Ralph De Wilton, but I 
don't think he is the hero. 

Teacher: You consider Ealph De Wilton the hero? 

Pupil : Yes. 

Teacher: You think it was the times rather than the man himself? 

Pupils : Yes. 

Teacher: That is perfectly true; I must confess I think the story is 
a little weak in that point, — it is called Marmion, but the one who triumphs 
really is Ealph De Wilton. 

Pupil: The most part of it is about Marmion. 



92 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher : Yes. 

Pupil: — So I think you could consider the book well named. 
Teacher: That is perfectly true, but there is that other criticism that 
Marmion himself is not the one who triumphs; it is the overthrow, really, 
of Marmion, who represents the evil, and Ralph De Wilton the good. 
Someone spoke of the worst thing he did, which was treason; does anyone 
think that in that time forgery was rather out of harmony? 

Pupil: I don't think he would have done it in anything else; I think 
he thought— that he knew Clare liked Ealph better than she did him. and 
she wanted to get him out of the way. 

Teacher: The author was very consistent in putting his tvhole story 
in the Middle Ages, and that one point of forgery was rather a com- 
mercial point. What do you consider the real weakness in Marmion 's 
character? 

Pupil: He wanted to be so great himself; he wanted everything; — and 
Constance didn't have any lands and Clare did, so he wanted to marry 
her, and he forged the letters. 

Pupil: His weakness was in how he loved people. 
Teacher: What do you mean exactly? 

Pupil: At first he loved Constance, and Clare came along, and he liked 
her because she had lands. 

Teacher: He really always loved Constance, didn't he? 
Pupil: His pride and self-conceit, — and in the second place he thinks 
he is greater than Ralph De Wilton so Clare should like him better; he 
says: "I am this wonderful knight — ." 

Teacher: His conceit, his ambition is really the thing that proves his 
downfall. I asked you to select any stansas that you considered particu- 
larly good on account of the color. Bid you find one? The canto and the 
stanza? Dorothy? 

Dorothy: Canto I, stanza I. 
Teacher: Bead it out loud. 

Dorothy: "Along the bridge Lord Marmion rode, 
Proudly his red-roan charger trode, 
His helm hung at the saddle-bow; 
Well by his visage you might know 
He was a stalwart knight and keen, 
And had in many a battle been; 
The sear on his brown cheek reveal 'd 
A token true of Bosworth field; 
His eyebrow dark, and eye of fire, 
Show'd spirit proud, and prompt to ire; 
Yet lines of thought upon his cheek 
Did deep design and counsel speak, 
His forehead, by his casque worn bare, 
His thick moustache and curly hair, 
Coal-black, and grizzled here and there, 



Stenographic Lesson Report 



9.s 



Teacher : 
Dorothy 
Teacher : 
Dorothy 
Teacher : 



Teacher : 
Margaret : 
Teacher : 
Margaret : 



But more through toil than age; 
His square-turn 'd joints, and strength of limb, 
Show'd him no carpet knight so trim, 
But in close fight a champion grim, 
In camps a leader sage." 
Teacher: That is a very good description of Marmion there, but lias 
it much color? 

Dorothy: I think it has. 
What part? 

His appearance, his face — 
Was bright? 
IMo it was dark. 

Is that the color? I think that is a capital description, but 
don't think there is much color »i it. 

Dorothy: I didn't find any stanza I thought was any better. 
Margaret? 

I took Canto IV, and stanza XXVIII. 
Just read that part of it that has a good deal of color in it. 
It is all through the stanza: 
Nor mark'd they less, where in the air 
A thousand streamers flaunted fair; 
Various in shape, device and hue, 
Green, sanguine, purple, red and blue, 
Broad, narrow, swallow-tail 'd, and square, 
Scroll, pennon, pencil, bandrol, there 

O'er the pavilion flew. 
Highest and midmost was descried 
The royal banner floating wide; 

The staff, a pine tree, strong and straight, 
Pitch 'd deeply in a massive stone, 
Which still in memory is shown, 

YJet bent beneath the standard's weight 
Whene'er the western wind unroll 'd 
With toil, the huge and cumbrous fold, 
And gave to view the dazzling field 
Where, in proud Scotland's royal shield, 
The ruddy lion ramp'd in gold. 
A good deal of motion in that. 

And the color of all the different flags. 
There was a capital description right after the one you read, 
Dorothy, the trappings of the horses— 
Pupil: Yes, I think it was light blue. 

Teacher: Any stanza you found with a great deal of action; where 
would you look to find a stanza with a great deal of action? 
Pupil: At the end of the book. 
Teacher: What was that? 
Pupil: Flodden Field. 



Teacher : 
Margaret : 
Teacher : 



94 The Question as a Measure of Efficiency in Instruction 

Teacher: Anyone find a good stanza there? Margaret? 
Margaret: There was a good deal of action where Marmion — 
Teacher: There was a good deal— 
Pupil: Where he dashes over the drawbridge. 

Teacher: Yes; any in the battle? Carlton? Turn to the class and 
read it aloud. 

Carlton : At length the freshening western blast 
Aside the shroud of battle cast; 
And first, the ridge of mingled spears 
Above the brightening cloud appears; 
And in the smoke the pennons flew, 
As in the storm the white sea-mew. 
Then mark'd they, dashing broad ana far, 
The broken billows of the war, 
And plumed crests of chieftains brave, 
Floating like foam upon the wave; 

But naught distinct they see; 
Wide raged the battle on the plain! 
Spears shook, the falchions flash 'd amain; 
Fell England's arrow-flight like rain; 
Crests rose, and stoop 'd, and rose again, 
Wild and disorderly. 
Teacher: That is very good; and the next stanse, in the fight itself; 
how many noticed that? 
(Hands.) 

Teacher: What passages in Marmion are quoted frequently, Anna? 
Anna: I think where Marmion says good-bye to Douglas, and where 
Douglas is angry because Marmion tells him that he has lied. 

Teacher: Why do you suppose tluit is so frequently selected to be 
put into readers? 

Pupil: I think it has so much feeling and so much swing — 
Teacher: It has feeling and swing — 
Pupil: Yes. 

Teacher: Any other reason? How many can just see those two men, 
Douglas and Marmion, pitted against each other? Any other? 
Pupil: O, woman in our hours of ease, 

Uncertain, coy, and hard to please, 
And variable as the shade 
By the light quivering aspen made; 
When pain and anguish wring the brow, 
A ministering angel thou! 
Teacher: Do you believe that? 
Pupil : No. 

Teacher: I don't either; it may have been true at that time. 
Pupil: There is another, where Constance says: 

And come he slow, or come he fast, 
It is but Death who comes at last. 



Stenographic Lesson Report 95 

Teacher: Another? 

Margaret: And darest thou then 

To beard the lion in his den, 
And Douglas in his hall? 

Teacher: How many have read the Lady of the Lake? 

(Hands.) 

Teachers. .Which do you Mice better, Harmion or the Lady of the Lake? 

Ed: The Lady of the Lake I read about two years ago in Miss A's 
class, and 1 can remember it, but this I couldn't remember in a couple 
of weeks. 

Teacher : Dorothy ? 

Dorothy: I think I would know right away that I was reading Scott; 
the two books; he repeats himself the way Macaulay does; their heroes 
are something the same. 

Teacher: It is Scott all the way through. What do you think are 
the strong points in Marmion? 

Pupil: I don't know. 

Teacher: How many feel that the descriptions are capital? 

(Hands.) 

Teacher: 7 want everyone by Monday to have purchased a copy of 
Silas Marner, etc., etc., For to-morrow prepare the grammar on page, 
etc., etc. 



APR 29 U12 



